The story “Sensini” by Bolano is about a writer that gets the ability to talk to his hero after entering a writing competition. This man was a famous writer by the name of Sensini and had entered the competition as well. Over time, the author and Sensini begin to write a continuous stream of letters to one another. One day the author receives the news that Sensini’s son died and he is traveling over seas to get closure. After his departure, the author gets a visit and discovers it to be Sensini’s daughter. She has informed the author that Sensini had died overseas while getting closure over his sons death.

Throughout the story, readers are never given an actual description of the author. The protagonist is seen as unreliable and is not given a definitive description of his physical appearance. This made me question things he said such as when he wrote to Sensini stating “…one night, after dinner or after a light meal or just a snack, I wrote to him”. This shows the uncertainty in the writing and leads readers to speculation. The claimed letters fail to have validation. Furthermore, there seems to be more than what is discussed in the letters. Rather than the seemingly simplistic conversations and exchanges, it seems as though both people want more from the stream of letters. It is as though Sensini sees his son in the author, while the author is trying to attain a more realistic grasp on what seems to be a fake friendship. Overall, Bolano’s story has a melancholy theme with many things left to be questioned.

There is a clear break from the use of rationality and the use of the chain of command seen in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. To set off the plot of the story, General Ripper orders an unauthorized direct attack on Russia’s nuclear war plants. He does this crazy thing based on his irrational fear of Communism. After this, every single person follows protocol and executes precisely as it is written. The rational moves made by everyone after is spot on, however all this rationality was brought about by and irrational act. This reminded me of when we talked about the Flowers from Evil and how there is beauty that comes from disgust. It parallels exactly, the good wouldn’t exist without the bad just as the rational actions would not have been taken if the initial irrational attack weren’t called in. What’s also interesting is that you see the very beginning of the process is missing. Everything that occurs under General Ripper’s command is supposed to start with the President’s orders, however it does not making everything being done wrong. It’s another weird circle like the ones we have been dealing with all semester. I personally loved the movie very much and am glad you decided to show it. Great pick!

In the movie, the theme of rationality and irrationality played important roles. A character representing the irrational was General Ripper. He started a nuclear war without any official orders from the US government. His extreme paranoia, an irrational emotion, of communism taking over the world led to his decision. This action started a chain of logical reactions including the attack on the air base, the war room, attempts at radio communication, attempts to shoot down the plane and more. However, these logical actions were not successful in neutralizing the irrational action that started the mess.

Dr. Strangelove represents rationality at its extreme. He is very calculated and has solutions to the problems at hand. His solution are rational but they fail to account for human variables. For example, he advises that the United States move many people to underground mines and the ratio of man to women should be 10 to 1 for reproductive purposes. This makes sense but it ignores the individuality of people. The relationship between man and woman would just be about fertility and procreation. The concept of love may be gone. In addition, he is unaffected by the impending doom of mankind. He wanted to use a computer to choose the people would be allowed to survive.

Edmund Burke would despise Dr. Strangelove. This cold rationality is what disrupts society and allows chaos to occur. Natural phenomena should not be allows calculated. They should be appreciated and allow humans to be in touch with their raw emotions. This cold rationality can be found during the second world war. The atomic bombing of Japan can be considered a rational act. The destruction of two Japanese cities to spare the lives of American soldiers. Some may consider it a necessary evil. This cold rationality could be used to justify controversial events.

The character of Dr. Strangelove in Stanley Kubrick’s film, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, is an ex Nazi scientist who was brought over to the US after WWII in order to advise the president on scientific and technological matters in the War Room. Dr. Strangelove is in a wheelchair and is hardly heard from until it seems inevitable that the dooms day machine will be activated. When President Muffley realizes that they cannot stop the dooms day machine, he consults Dr. Strangelove on the best course of action to take in order to avoid the fallout from the radiation. Strangelove suggests they take a select group of people down into a mine shaft to avoid the radiation and bring a 10:1 female to male ratio that should be chosen by a computer in order to make sure the best candidates are selected and they can repopulate the United States properly.

The character of Dr. Strangelove is a strange eccentric man who only becomes intrigued and excited by everything that is happening when he hears the dooms day machine will be activated. His strange obsession with the end of the world, that seems to be coming upon them rapidly, is evident by his name “Strange Love”. The generals keep asking each other where this man came from and why his name is so odd. The best they could figure out about this mysterious man is that his name in german is Strangelove when translated to english which explains why he answers to this name. Dr. Strangelove’s final monologue is a microcosm of his character. In the final scene Dr. Strangelove is rambling about a combination of things while sitting in the middle of all the people in the War Room, he steps out of his wheelchair, takes a step and exclaims “I can walk”. The next scene cuts to a montage of explosions seemingly from the activation of the dooms day machine. It was almost as though Dr. Strangelove had been preparing for this moment since he began studying science and the hydrogen bomb in Germany and his standing up was the culmination of his life’s work. His steps triggered his strangest obsession, the hydrogen bomb which at that time period people saw as more of theoretical threat that would never actually come to fruition then an immediate reality.

The film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb directed by Stanley Kubrick depicts the tensions that the Soviet Union and the United States faced during the mid-sixties. They way that General Jack Ripper spoke about Communism is like to what we have read and discussed in class. In the beginning, it seems that the base that the General Ripper is stationed at is under attack. As part of the emergency code, he sends out a confirmation to the warplanes to attack the Soviet Union. In addition, it is mandatory that the base cuts off all communication with everyone. In the processes of isolating himself, he keeps Captain Lionel Mandrake in the room with him. Captain Mandrake concludes that he’s gone mad and that the base was never under attack by the nation’s competition. The General is afraid that Communism may take over the world and affect the order on a macro level.

This goes back to when we discussed The Diary of a Madman. The insane man believed he would be eaten by the cannibals who represent the elite because he does not comply to the values that benefited them. The man is forced to conform to the values that are instilled in the Chinese society because those values have always been there. During the time of when the film was made, Communism had risen and created an impact on the world, threatening Capitalism and political systems alike. Our nation had a strong phobia towards the political system and the government used their power to prevent any infiltration in the nation. General Jack Ripper represents the cannibals in the film, he forces his ideas of Communism by initiating conflicts between the United States and the Soviet Union creating a domino effect to potentially starting another world war, forcing everyone to comply to his perception of Communism.

In Stanley Kubrick’s film Dr. Strangelove, General Ripper and Captain Lionel Mandrake are significantly different from each other and the rest of the characters in the film. After watching this film, I believe that General Ripper represents irrationality. This can be seen primarily through his irrational demand of “Wing Attack Plan R.” Before administering this attack, he did not consult any other commanders or officials. This then created an eruption of chaos and commotion. He ordered this attack because of his fear of communist “infiltration” and “subversion.” In his conversations with Captain Lionel Mandrake, he claimed that the communists were going to “impurify” all of their “bodily fluids” and force them to lose their “essence.” This is his (insane) justification for sending nuclear weapons to the U.S.S.R. General Ripper can symbolize the overall paranoia that occurred during the Cold War. Also, by shooting himself, he lifted the burden of responsibility that he put onto himself when administering this attack.

RAF Group Captain Mandrake, on the other hand, represents rationality and reason. Throughout the film, he is completely aware of what’s going on. When he and General Ripper were locked inside the room, he tried to rationalize with him to obtain the recall code and halt the nuclear weapons. Because of his awareness and understanding of the situation, he acts carefully to accomplish his own specific tasks. He shows respect to General Ripper in attempts to “get on his good side” and retrieve the code. Although Ripper’s explanation of the communist conspiracy was very absurd, Mandrake did not make any irrational statements to anger Ripper. He was calm and knew what needed to be done and how it needed to be executed. He represents the rationality throughout the film. At the end of the film when Mandrake found the recall code, he immediately made it his mission to deliver the code to the President.

Dr. Strangelove, or How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, was quite an interesting movie. The movie follows a series of irrational and rational events that eventually lead up to the destruction of the entire world as we know it. The film beings with General Jack Ripper ordering his soldiers to go forward with Plan R. According to the film, the general had total say in when to unleash Plan R when they see it necessary without the approval of the president, but as the audience finds out later on, the reason for which General Ripper gave the okay was illogical. He felt as if the Russians were polluting “precious bodily fluids” through fluoridation in US water. The idea of giving a general the green light to attack an enemy when no other person of higher power is available seems like a logical idea because one can assume the general knows best and will have the country’s best interest at heart as well. However, once the general explains the reasons and threats he feels imposed by Communism, it makes the audience and his executive officer, RAF Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, question his sanity. Personally, I felt like Mandrake was the only person that made sense in the entire film. Plan R was a dangerous and risky plan to go along with and make sure this was really happening, Lionel decided to double check with headquarters and after realizing no such order was handed down from higher authorities, he decided to confront Ripper, which of course leads to him being locked inside the room with him. Throughout the film, Mandrake tries to reason with Ripper and to tries to get the three letter coded needed to bring back the plane. Another moment he uses logic and reason was when he told Colonel Bat Guano that if the president wanted to talk to Ripper, and Ripper is dead, wouldn’t it make the slightest sense to talk whoever is one step beneath him, which is him?

In response the question four, there are a few instances of rational and irrational actions coinciding. The first is when General Ripper gives the irrational order to execute Wing attack Plan R, which causes the rational response by the air force to confirm the plan. Subsequently, there is the irrational chain of command explained by General Turgidson, that allows General Ripper to give the order without consulting higher-ups.  President Merken Muffley has to come up with a rational plan to avoid , however he is working with a Russian diplomat which is irrational considering that the United States is supposed to be against them. The most obvious example of rational/irrational is Dr. Strangelove’s plan for after the inevitable apocalypse where a specified amount of people will stay in an underground bunker for 100 years to repopulate the earth.

In response to question five, under General Ripper’s command, he orders the air force to execute wing attack Plan R, an emergency war plan. The plan is meant to be executed in response to an attack by Russia against the United States. However, General Ripper gives the commands as a preemptive move against Russian forces. The air force responds to the plan by first assuming that it must be a mistake because the plan is so drastic that it doesn’t make sense for it to be their orders. The air force pilots then decode the message to confirm the plan, and realize that something bad must have happened in order for Plan R to be needed. In the War Room, General Turgidson explains to President Merken Muffley the complicated chain of command that allowed General Ripper to execute Plan R, but for some reason doesn’t allow anyone else to know the three letter code to stop it. General Ripper cut communications to the base so he is the only person capable of reversing the commands. This is a clear oversight that appears to the result of bureaucratic incompetence. Therefore, President Merken Muffley has to come up with a contingency plan to essentially avoid an apocalypse.

In the film, Captain Mandrake is the most rational character because he looks at the entire picture before taking any stances and making a decision. He had reasonable reasons to be able to be able to persuade others easily on what he needed to happen. On the other hand, the rest of the characters only listen to one side of the story. They are all very passionate about their claims and statements, but they have no basis for their conclusions. The only way for an action to happen was through the persuasion of a loud stammering voice. All they stated were their opinions and this displayed their selfish intents and neglection of facts.

Initally, I had thought General Ripper was a rational character because he has made an understandable, reasonable choice to suicide after he had heard he was going to be tortured (since i came in halfway through the film & missed the previous scenes). But then, I realized that he was irresonsible to have killed himself before giving Captain Mandrake the code. What was missing from General Ripper’s command to instigate an attack on Russia was who was liable to take on this responsibility. He, on his own, escaped that responsibility by suiciding, even though he had issued the command. Also, even though he issued the command, he was stuck in his office room while his underlings did the actual combats. This also raised the issue of commitment to the command because if General Ripper was actually committed to his goal of attacking Russia, he wohld have given the code to Captain Mandrake before suiciding. That was an uncertain scene to me because he had seemed really passionate and intent on succeeding, yet his later actions did not follow up with it. He neglectingly sacrificed his underlings without accomplishing anything.

Ariana