Technology is at the core of Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove. One of the film’s most important themes is the faulty technology of war. It is the cause of the depersonalization, flawed communication, and isolation prevailing in the film. Technology places power into the hands of error-prone mechanisms (radios, telephones, a doomsday device, etc.). It lessens the political power of the “powerful” men in the War Room and discloses how powerless they are in actuality. Because the secret three-letter code was known only to General Ripper, the men lacked the capacity to act. When Mandrake eventually identifies the code, he has difficulty passing it on and communicating it to the War Room seeing that the payphone was the only working method of communication.

Technology also takes part in the depersonalization of war. General Rippler is an “armchair general” who issues “Wing Attack Plan R,” commanding U.S. aircraft to commence an attack flight on Russia while in his office. Unlike the soldiers or commanders that are directly associated with combat and warfare, General Rippler locks himself (and Mandrake) in his office. Even U.S. aircraft isn’t directly associated with combat, as the bomb simply falls through the bomb bay doors and detonates on its target. When Dr. Strangelove proposed that the President collect several hundred thousand people to live where the radiation from the doomsday device will not penetrate, President Muffley expresses that he “would hate to have to decide who stays up and who goes down.” Dr. Strangelove replies that it will not be necessary for him to decide because it can “easily be accomplished with a computer,” which can be set and programmed on the basis of youth, health, sexual fertility, intelligence, etc. By utilizing a computer to decide essentially who lives and who dies, President Muffley is allowed to generate distance from this operation, both mentally and physically. He is detached and technology enables him to be – it is systematic and methodical.

Dr. Strangelove is relevant to this day. General Ripper’s paranoia in regard to the “Ruskis” and “Commies” exists amid Americans today but in regard to terrorism and individuals like Donald Trump. This culture of fear is just the same in our lives as it was in Dr. Strangelove. General Ripper is a typical example of it. Moreover, in Dr. Strangelove, women are not incorporated in the War Room and its discussion of power. The only woman seen in the film plays Turgidson’s secretary and her only power is lustful power. Even today, the idea of a woman in power is not customary.

In “Surfaciality” from Simon Critchley’s ABC of Impossibility, Critchley announces that Alberto Caeiro calls the machinic habit of familiarity the “sickness of the eyes.” Critchley asserts that “we need an apprenticeship in unlearning in order to learn to see and not to think. We need to learn to see appearances and nothing more, and to see those appearances not as the appearances of some deeper, but veiled reality, but as real appearances.” Caeiro affirms his “soul is simple and doesn’t think” and that his “mysticism is not wanting to know,” but rather, “it is to live and not to think about this.” Finally, Caeiro affirms “I don’t know what nature is: I sing it.” Essentially, Caeiro is going astray from familiarity, normalcy, and nature’s concept that something has basic or inherent features. He is getting rid of any association with himself and society as well as societal regulations. He turns down the notion of defined roles, and lives anew, without conforming to anything formerly established and specified. Caeiro declares, “and this is my definition,” which, in essence, is no definition.

“Surfaciality” is relevant to Clarice Lispector’s The Daydreams of a Drunk Woman because Maria Quiteria, a housewife, calls into question her role as a woman. Throughout the tale, Maria reveals her misery and rage as a consequence of the choices she made while seeking security and protection. These choices were encouraged by society – the exploitation of a woman’s body “to marry a man she neither loves nor respects” to escape poverty. (809) Maria is always making derogatory remarks (lazy bitch, slut) towards herself for her shortcoming as a housewife. She was unhappy filling in this role and lost her “every-day soul” as a housewife Saturday night, feeling queer and liberty, reminding her of former days as a young woman. (812) To come to the point, Maria, like Caeiro, desires to purge herself of societal regulations and defined roles.

In addition, “Surfaciality” and The Daydreams of a Drunk Woman call to mind Rene Descartes mind-body distinction and, especially, Olympe de Gouges’ endeavor to bring back the body of a woman into society. A woman does not necessarily have to assume her “natural” roles of a mother and wife, as she possesses identical capabilities in contrast to a man.

Samuel Beckett’s Endgame is enclosed with absurdism, nihilism, and pessimism. The link between these beliefs is the concept of nothingness. To depict this, Beckett made use of empty, repetitive dialogue, a twisted bare setting, and the lack of an obvious climax. To come to the point, Beckett utilized the components of traditional theater (plot, character, setting, dialogue) to a minimum. This helps to facilitate the notion that straightforward beginnings and straightforward endings don’t prevail. Instead, beginnings and endings are connected, generating cyclicity. The title itself, Endgame, incorporates this, as the endgame is the final stage of a chess game when few pieces remain and the end is in sight although the plays need to be finalized in spite of that. When Hamm awakens, his first words are, “me to play,” as if he is a pawn and his existence is the chess game. He instantly commands Clov to get him ready for bed, his armchair, after he scrutinizes his sufferings. This pessimism conveys what it is like to be alive, diminishing in the direction of death in a world without meaning. It examines the reality that existence and life is not pleasant and grand as humanistic texts indicate. In place of this “pleasantry” and “grandness” is the thought that existence and life is a dreadful duty to go through, hence why Hamm expresses his desire to sleep as soon as he came to (awakened). The characters in Endgame give rise to the apprehensiveness and incompatibility of human relationships in a world of absurdism in which human beings exist in a meaningless and disorderly world. Hamm and Clov are in conflict with one another all the time. There is a general cruelty between the characters – Hamm’s parents are kept in ash bins. This idea is, without doubt, absurd and illogical. However, this absence of love and warmth is all over in Endgame. For example, Hamm stated he would feed Clov just enough to keep him from dying. Clov also stated he won’t kiss Hamm anywhere or give him his hand when Hamm held out his hand. Only Nagg and Nell make an effort to kiss but fail to meet because of the obstruction of the ash bins. All in all, Beckett’s Endgame employed darkness (setting), minimalism, and reductionism (fragmented and interrupted dialogue) as postwar literature did because catastrophes are hard to put into words. Meaninglessness in Endgame alleviates the sufferings of the four characters and their existence is lessened to survival (food, shelter, sleep, and Hamm’s painkiller). When other existence is located in their shelter (the flea, the rat), it is exterminated.  

Responsibility. “The state or fact of being accountable or to blame for something.” Synonym: Guilt. In Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s The Visit, responsibility is a major theme. In The Visit, Man Two declares Jews conspired to Guellen’s bankruptcy and detriment. Likewise, in Tadeusz Borowski’s This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen, the narrator declares Jews are not only accountable for their impending doom, but they are also accountable for the narrator’s lifestyle. It is plain that responsibility is placed into the hands of the Jews. In The Visit, Claire discloses to the townspeople that she arranged Guellen’s economic undoing to avenge the injustice perpetrated against her by Ill. Upon the realization of Ill’s part in their town’s ruination, the townspeople responded by justifying Ill’s imminent demise. He was guilty (responsible) of a grave injustice against Claire, an injustice that resulted in her suffering, after all. Ultimately, Ill is killed by a townsman, but with the validation of the whole town, including Ill’s family. This convolutes responsibility since it is out of the question for one individual to take responsibility for Ill’s death. Moreover, it is unfeasible for the whole town to take responsibility for Ill’s death, as a good deal of individuals partook in Ill’s killing.

In his interview, Jacques Ellul declares, “In a society such as ours, it is almost impossible for a person to be responsible.” He demonstrates this by providing a situation in which a dam is built somewhere and bursts. He continues by asking, “Who is responsible for that?” Is it the geologists, engineers, workmen, or politicians? He answers his question with, “No one. There is never anyone responsible. Anywhere.” This is in view of the fact that fragmentation occurs everywhere, specifically in the building of the dam in this situation. Jacques Ellul declaring it is impossible for a person to be responsible is exemplified in The Visit. When all’s said and done, no one in the town will be held responsible for Ill’s death because every townsperson was involved – Claire, the Mayor, the Priest, the Policeman, the Schoolmaster, Ill’s wife, Ill’s son, Ill’s daughter, and the remainder of the town. Everyone took delight in acquiring luxuries as a result of the remuneration received by the townspeople from Claire for Ill’s death.

Surrealism is an artistic, intellectual, and literary movement that sought to liberate the unrestrained imagination of the unconscious mind. One form of accomplishing this is by means of unnatural or irrational juxtapositions and combinations of images. As demonstrated by the two films Un Chien Andalou and Ballet Mécanique, surrealism’s most lasting impact would be on photography, cinema, painting, and advertising.

Un Chien Andalou is a surrealist film by director Luis Buñuel. It portrayed sexuality, desire, and violence as well as human emotion. Because the film has no plot and the chronology of the film is muddled, I made sense of it by linking it to Sigmund Freud (dreams) and children, based on André Breton’s Manifesto of Surrealism. Dreams are deemed as a resource rich in visual and intellectual stimulation, whereas, children have not yet learned to suppress their imaginations. Resultantly, both dreams and children support liberation from the traditional education, work, and dullness useful only in modern bourgeois culture. In The Painter of Modern Life, Charles Baudelaire states that a child “sees everything in a state of newness.” This is exemplified in Un Chien Andalou, as the young man and the young woman stared at his hand where ants emerged from a hole in the palm, their faces encompassing uncertainty and interest. Ants, uncertainty, and interest draw attention to children. Further into the film, there is a woman whom I initially wrongly identified as a young man poking at a severed human hand. She was surrounded by a large crowd and a policeman making an effort at managing the crowd. Poking also draws attention to children and newness, as an initial reaction to exploring and perceiving the unknown is to poke (moving slowly all the while enabling distance). Because the policeman was making an effort at managing the crowd, I comprehended it as the policeman was making an effort at managing the “child” inside the adults, repressing it once more into the unconscious. Later in the film, the young man is roused from his dream of relations with the young woman by another young man in professional attire. His response to being awoken solidified the notion that perhaps, it is reality that interferes with dreams and not dreams with reality. Lastly, in the final minutes of the film, the young woman sticks out her tongue (childish) and then proceeds to a coastal beach where she meets another man with whom she gives the impression of being romantically involved with (conduct associated with adults). It comes across as though the woman is attempting to reconcile both facets within herself, attempting to attain surreality.

Ballet Mécanique is a Dadaist film by artist Fernand Léger. Like Un Chien Andalou, no plot exists and the chronology is muddled. Nothing in Ballet Mécanique is fixed/stagnate, as everything is in motion, whether it is a human being or a mechanism. The film even commences with a woman swinging and concludes with legs (mobility). Throughout Ballet Mécanique, there is an emphasis on repetition, generating a hypnotic effect that is fortified with the audio and rapid/spontaneous images, challenging the logic of anything that is planned, especially in regard to the future.

Un Chien Andalou and Ballet Mécanique unquestionably achieved success in thrusting me out of my comforting assumptions and my perceived norms. Additionally, I’m not aware of the stigma associated with women’s body hair in 1929, but the young woman in Un Chien Andalou had underarm hair. Underarm hair is not currently a “norm” for women in 2016, but as with all “norms,” this one is being called into question and slowly dispersing among few select individuals.

Diary of a Madman (1918) by Lu Xun is a short story presented as thirteen diary entries of a madman suffering due to his paranoia. Identifying that the villagers are cannibals, the Madman infers, “I’m a person too, and they want to eat me!” (246) Prior to arriving at this inference, the Madman browsed through a history book in which there were no dates. In place of dates, across every page, were the words benevolence, righteousness, morality – Confucian code of behavior. (246) Between the lines, however, was the phrase: “Eat people!” (246) In Diary of a Madman, literally, the consumption of the Madman by the villagers is at stake, but there’s more to be lost than that. Figuratively, the villagers’ consumption of the Madman constitutes the Madman, an iconoclast calling for a new culture, being consumed by the traditionalists reinforcing traditional Chinese culture. In Lu Xun’s Diary of a Madman and Franz Kafka’s The Judgment, allusions to age, the joining of binary oppositions, and societal regulations prevail through the texts.

In Diary of a Madman, the first diary entry gives an overall impression of the Madman’s rebirth into society, as the Madman himself states, “I feel like a new man.” (244) Additionally, the first diary entry provides insight in regard to the Madman’s age, which is at least 30 years. Age is stressed in Diary of a Madman, as every character mentioned by the Madman is described through a frame of reference of age – Venerable Old Zhao, Mr. Antiquity, Old Fifth Chen, Elder Brother, all of whom amounted to ancient traditional China, whereas, children amounted to hope of the transition to a new China. In The Judgment, the Friend, who, like the Madman, is an iconoclast, “was settling in to become a bachelor for good.” (58) In German, a bachelor translates to “ein junggeselle,” jung translating to young. It is impractical for the Friend to be young for good, but Georg classifies the Friend as a “big child.” (58) In the context of what children amount to in Diary of a Madman, the Friend and his youthfulness also amount to newness, as youth encompasses uncertainty, unfamiliarity, and, overall, unbiased eyes to view the world anew.

In Diary of a Madman, the Madman states in his seventh diary entry that the villagers “have set traps all over the place so that I’ll do myself in.” (248) In The Judgment, Georg Bendemann’s father states, “I hereby condemn you to death by drowning,” to which Georg responded by moving toward the water and letting himself drop from the bridge. (71) In relation to Diary of a Madman, Georg’s father set the trap and Georg did himself in it, at that moment constituting both the executioner and the executionee, revealing the joining of the binary oppositions, which the Madman was well-informed of.

Finally, in Diary of a Madman, the Madman asks, “What is it that these fathers, sons, brothers, husbands, wives, friends, teachers, students, enemies, and even people who don’t know each other really do?” (250) He answers this question with “Why they all join together to hold each other back, and talk each other out of it!” (250) The “it” pertained to giving up “that” (ancient and traditional) way of thinking. The Madman then concludes his ninth diary entry with “they’d rather die than take that one little step,” disclosing how affiliated the villagers were to society and its regulations – it was their identity, the backbone of their existence. In The Judgment, Georg Bendemann exemplified this bond to societal regulations. His surname Bendemann alludes to binding, as Georg makes an effort to bind himself to societal regulations through his involvement in a prospering business, his engagement to Fraulein Frieda Brandenfeld, which would inevitably result in him being categorized as a husband, father, etc., and, lastly, his obligation to behave as caretaker to his aging father. Like the villagers in Diary of a Madman, Georg was affiliated with this bond to societal regulations to the extent of using it as his identity, stating, “that is how I am, and that is how he must take me.” (61) Consequently, Georg limits and defines himself strictly as a product of the titles (son, husband, father, etc.) society instilled in him. However, he is unsuccessful in completing this bond with societal regulations, as, ultimately, he dies, something the villagers would rather happen than sacrificing their way of thinking.

In summation, Lu Xun’s Diary of a Madman and Franz Kafka’s The Judgment, allude to age (young – moving forward versus old – looking back), join together the binary opposition of executioner and executionee, and reveal the magnitude of significance and authority that societal regulations possess in regard to their subjects (victims). In Diary of a Madman, the Madman became “sound and fit again,” being deprived of the freedom and purge of societal regulations he once owned, whereas, in The Judgment, Franz Kafka himself never married Fraulein Felice B. in reality, still owning his freedom and conveying it through his texts. (Diaries, 21 June 1913)

Arbitrary. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the full definition of arbitrary is “based on or determined by individual preference or convenience rather than by necessity or the intrinsic nature of something.” In Friedrich Nietzsche’s On Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense, Nietzsche links arbitrary with certainty and truth in regard to human intellect. Nietzsche states, “for this intellect has no further mission that would lead beyond human life,” accentuating there has been an age when human intellect did not exist and, nevertheless, the universe continued to exist. (Section 1, Paragraph 2) Thus, when humanity and human intellect will cease to exist, the universe will remain practically unaffected. Only humanity ascribes human intellect significance, “as if the world pivoted around it,” when, in actuality, human intellect is derived from human actions and thoughts and not from the eyes of the universe as humanity presumes. (Section 1, Paragraph 2) Consequently, human intellect misleads humanity into believing humans have a significant impact on the universe despite that this “significant impact” is merely nonexistent. Moreover, Nietzsche contrasts a human with a mosquito, stating if we (humans) had the ability to communicate with the mosquito, we would discover that the mosquito carries the same belief of self-importance within itself in regard to the center of the world. This correlation is amusing because we consider mosquitos inferior to us in the world and would willingly rid the world of them, yet, Nietzsche highlights humanity and mosquitos are similar, stressing once again how purposeless and random human intellect appears in nature. Nietzsche then states, humans “are deeply immersed in illusions and dream images” because “their eye glides only over the surface of things and sees ‘forms,’” not in the quest of truth. (Section 1, Paragraph 4) However, because humans, out of necessity, are social “animals,” they require limitations through a peace pact, which generates the attainment of “truth,” to institute means of interaction between individuals. Resultantly, the distinction between truth and lie originates, as individuals who abide by these limitations embody “truth,” whereas, individuals who do not abide by these limitations are “liars.” To sum up “truth,” Nietzsche states “truths are illusions about which one has forgotten that this is what they are.” (Section 1, Paragraph 9) “Truth” is not objective. Instead, it is artificial and subjective. In a word, truth is man-made.

The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels straightaway launches into class conflict. In essence, when scrutinized, class conflict results in the categorization of the oppressor and the oppressed. In the earlier age of history, society was arranged into intricate class orders, instituting social rank. The social rank of the Middle Ages was exemplified, as it was comprised of feudal lords, vassals, guild-masters, journeymen, apprentices, and serfs. However, the modern bourgeois society, developed from the ruins of feudal society, simplified class conflict into two great classes: the Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat. The bourgeoisie is “the class of modern capitalists, owners of the means of social production and employers of wage labour,” whereas, the proletariat is “the class of modern wage labourers who, having no means of production of their own, are reduced to selling their labour power in order to live.” (Page 15) The middle class, comprised of the small tradespeople, shopkeepers, handicraftsmen, and peasants, became submerged into the proletariat because their capital was inadequate in comparison to the capital of the large capitalists that the bourgeoisie was comprised of. Consequently, the bourgeoisie converted every occupation that was previously honored and held in high regard into merely paid wage labor. This had a bearing on lawyers, physicians, poets, priests, and scientists. Through exploitation, the bourgeoisie stripped society of individualism, passion, religion, and sentimentalism (family). Instead, individuals became commodities, as every relation had been reduced to a money relation. Because the bourgeoisie couldn’t exist without continually changing, the proletariat and its laborers were in a continual state of change, affecting their relations with the individuals in their lives (other laborers, family members, etc.) and their labor, as with every change was a possibility of unemployment. Hence, laborers were in continual competition with one another as well. This lack of solidification must have been frustrating as was the iPhone example mentioned in class, where within a matter of months after purchasing the newest model, a newer model is manufactured yet again. The Communist Manifesto relates to romanticism, as Karl Marx’s response to the Industrial Revolution and the emergence of the bourgeoisie and proletariat was that of an economist’s filtered through a romantic lens. With the arrival of the Industrial Revolution, romantics perceived a loss of beauty, meaning, sensibility, and, overall, humanity. This is stressed in Chapter 1, as an emphasis is placed on the inhumanity of the Industrial Revolution. Furthermore, The Communist Manifesto also relates to present Corporate America, as the opposition between small locally owned businesses and big corporate businesses is ongoing. I imagine the romanticist solution would be the individuals supporting these small businesses and marketplaces such as Etsy, restoring the individualism and passion and all else that was lost (including the tradespeople, shopkeepers, and handicraftsmen of the middle class) as a result of conforming into the bourgeoisie-proletariat way of labor in factories and manufacturing plants.

The Despotic Chiefs of Kau is comprised of a trio of brief stories, Halaea, Koihala, and Kohaikalani. This Hawaiian Folktale seeks to enlighten individuals that Kau, in old days, was referred to as a land of oppression due to three despotic (tyrannical) chiefs who lived there and the method in which the inhabitants of Halaea, Koihala, and Kohaikalani dethroned them. In Halaea, a greedy chief took all the fish for himself everyday upon visiting the fleet of fishing canoes. He then would hold a feast, often wasting the remaining food. Regardless, fishermen ate herbs for food, never having any fish to take home to their families. When the season of the ahi fish, a kind of tuna, arrived, the fishermen agreed to pile all their ahi in the chief’s canoe and return to the shore. Consequently, the chief’s canoe sank rapidly and he received no compassion, perishing alongside his greed. In Koihala, servants anticipated the irresolute (indecisive) chief’s appearance with prepared food from Waiahukini to Kailikii to Kapua, and, finally, Kaalualu. Hungry and tired, the servants agreed to eat the food themselves if the chief did not arrive shortly. The chief sat inactively in the canoe and stared at the servants so they proceeded to eat the food and fill the ti-leaf packets where the fish had been wrapped with stones as well as the calabashes where the vegetables had been. Taking notice, the chief paddled furiously to Kaalualu where the servants stoned him to death with the ti-leaf packets and calabashes. In Kohaikalani, the chief was an evil man who laid heavy burdens on his people whenever the opportunity arose. While helping the chief with the tree, the men released the rope and the tree rolled onto the chief and “death came to the oppressor.” (943) Since the three despotic chiefs have been dethroned, Kau has been referred to as a “land where everyone looks out for himself and his own family” instead of as a land of oppression. (943) As previously mentioned, The Despotic Chiefs of Kau seeks to enlighten individuals that chiefs (or any individuals in possession of power) are not divine and have potential to be dethroned, if necessary. This trio of brief stories evidently expressed chiefs must fear and respect the people they govern as opposed to imposing unrestrained rule upon them. A chief and the people governed by a chief are meant to be harmonized, with both looking out and feeling responsibility for each other. The Despotic Chiefs of Kau can be compared to The French Revolution and Louis XVI (of France), who was executed by the guillotine. One outcome of The French Revolution is it overthrew the monarchy, as did the inhabitants of Kau. The Despotic Chiefs of Kau can also be compared to the U.S. Slave Spirituals and Secular Songs, as the community of the inhabitants of Kau is similar to the community of the slaves, who were also in harmony with each other by singing songs that typically had a double meaning and were sometimes utilized to pass on coded information, demonstrating how they looked out and felt responsibility for one another.

In “A Carcass,” Charles Baudelaire’s first stanza constitutes a reminiscent account of locating a carcass on a “beautiful morning in June.” (Line 2) Baudelaire continues to describe the carcass in a grotesque manner, stating, in the second stanza, the carcass was “sweating out poisonous fumes” with a “stinking and festering womb.” (Lines 6 & 8) However, throughout the poem, Baudelaire disperses vibrant and high-spirited notions as exemplified in the fourth stanza. He states, “and the sky cast an eye on this marvelous meat as over the flowers in bloom.” (Lines 13 &14) This exposes the binary of life and death, as Baudelaire triggers the boundary between the two to dissipate. Instead, Baudelaire unites life and death together to form a unit, as they are one. Where death exists, life must exist and where life exists, death must exist. Therefore, one cannot exist without the other, as life constitutes a pre-requisite for death and death constitutes life’s inevitable burden of demise. To confirm this, in the tenth stanza, Baudelaire explains to his “love,” “you, in your turn, will be rotten as this: horrible, filthy, undone,” regardless that she is the sun of his nature, star of his eyes, passion, and angel in one. (Lines 37 & 38) Furthermore, a tone of sexual arousal is recognized, as the carcass is compared to a woman, although disrespectful, such as in the second stanza. Baudelaire states “her legs were spread out like a lecherous whore,” connecting sexual desire to putrefaction. (Line 5) Overall, Baudelaire focuses on coexistence in regards to life and death as well as beauty and ugliness, confirmed by the title of this volume of his poetry, “The Flowers of Evil.”