Reality and dream; rational and irrational; life and death; all those binary oppositions we learned from the course appeared in the film “The Discovery”. “The Discovery” is British-American romantic science fiction film directed by Charlie McDowell and written by Justin Lader and Charlie McDowell. The film talked about a man name Thomas Harbor proved the existence of an afterlife. He proved that part of our consciousness leaved us and traveled to a new plane by capture brain wavelengths on a subatomic level. People started to believe it and committed suicide because of it. Millions of people killed themselves. On the two-year anniversary of discovery of afterlife, Thomas Harbor’s son Will traveled to visit his father and brother. Later, Will saved a woman name Isla from committed suicide. Isla blamed Will for saving her life but later she changed her mind. Isla and Will became more and more closer. Thomas Harbor also invented a machine that can record dead people’s afterlife. They found out that the afterlife was not the same as they expected. The whole film’s storyline might not seem perfectly related to our course but some of their conversations and imagines made me recall things that I have learned from the reading Kafka’s “The Judgment”.  For example, the zero point, Death of God, madness, and logic of dream. In this article close reading, I will apply those terms to the film “The Discovery” to view this film at different angle.

The rational thinking eliminated the God. The film pointed out Death of God at the very beginning. When Thomas Harbor had the interview with the reporter, he said that “ I can’t comment on terminology like “soul” and “heaven” and “afterlife”, but what I can say with scientific certainty is that…”. This message pointed out that religious belief about afterlife (heaven) was wrong, the afterlife can be detected with pure logical machinery. In the end of the film, Will and Isla revealed that the afterlife of human being was just another alternative life that based on people’s desire and imagination. This perfectly fit to the point that Professor Rickenbach’s recap on Kafka’s The Judgment (Friedrich Nietzsche), which it stated that “God is dead and we are his murderers”. Another dialogue between Will and Isla, Will said that “ I think it’s our instinct to search for meaning, and when there is none, it’s our instinct to create meaning.” It gave me the feeling that God and Heaven existed in spiritual life because human were afraid of death or human could not interpret what will happen after death so we gave it a meaning (God and Heaven). When we discovered the truth behind death and life, the whole point of God and Heaven falls apart.

Suicide in Kafka’s Judgement represented that return to the zero point (unjudging). The point that we as child with wonder and fascination of the world that didn’t make any decision. In the film “The Discovery”, suicide was caused by discovery of an afterlife. Millions of people committed suicide because they believed in afterlife even they did not know what will afterlife looks like. They wanted to escape from the reality/life. They believe that they can restart their life (return to the zero point) by go to the afterlife. But reality is that afterlife is just people’s desire, imagination, and fantasy. There was no zero point as people expected for the afterlife.

Logic of the dream fit perfectly in the end of the film, which Will and Isla found out that afterlife was just people’s desire and imagination. As Professor Rickenbach mentioned in the Recap, “logic of Dream is not like logic we understand in real life. It is not based on logic of non-contradiction. The unconscious and Dream logic know only “yes””. In the film, Will and Isla understood that afterlife was what alternative life that people wanted (the world that people make up by him/herself). Things in their afterlife (dream) did not have to follow the logic. Tattoo in someone’s hand could be different from reality and people could go to places that they did not go before or did things they regret they did not do before. The afterlife was purely based on people’s unconsciousness, the id. The screen that display the afterlife was black and white only, the reality was colorful. It was like our discussion on the opposition, Life- Dream, Color—Black and white.

What I learned from the reading in this course can be apply into different literature, film, newspaper articles, TV show, games etc… Those ideas provided me the tools to view things at different angle and different prospective.

Language appeared only few times in the film “Modern Times”. First of all, language happen when the president ordered the instructions to his workers and monitored workers (when Chaplin try to loaf on the job, the president warned him). President’s voice and imagine were appeared in the monitor. In addition, language happen when the sales man introduced their machine. Moreover, language happen when Chaplin in the Warden’s office–sounds from radio. Language used in here were all related to technology, which was rational, definite, and pure logic. The way we hear the voice is significant because  it shows that our human being was rationalized by machinery. The president only cared about his profit, revenue that workers produced by using machine. Sales man only cared the feeding machine, they just wanted to sell it. Chaplin pointed out that machinery supposed to make human being’s life easier but it totally destroyed the people’s life. Workers were replaced by machine and they had to work at the speed of machine without any rest.

“Modern Times” is related to surrealism and dadaism. The character Chaplin’s actions can be described by using Dadaism idea. His actions were against everything (when he operated machine—machine stopped; when he leaned on the door—door break; when he sat on the chair—floor break; and so on…). He was the one who can not be full controlled. He was irrational, can not be described by reason. Gamine and Chaplin also represented surrealism. Their imagination about the house, they were the owner and everything had to follow their order (even foods and cow). It contradicted the reality.

At the end, Gamine prepared lyric for Chaplin to perform but Chaplin’s actions threw the rational and organized lyric away. He sang the song without looking at lyric and he performed randomly with different languages. His song means nothing, his performance was came from unconsciousness (automatic writing).

Ballet Mecanique is a Dadaist film conceived, written, and co-directed by the artist Fernand Léger. My first impression when I finished watching this film was that I don’t know what is going on. When I applied rational thinking to relate this film with my understanding of the world, I could not interpret it. The logic falls apart!  The idea of “Dada” apply perfectly in this film which it might has one particular meaning or multiple meanings or no meaning at all. Films in general might represent particular message, emphasize something or use metaphors to depict our world. On the other hand, Dadaist films are completely absurd, contradictory and illogical. Dadaist tried to destroy the old tradition and future completely. They wanted to achieve the zero point which no real meaning applied (everything has no particular meaning). Just like child’s point of view on the world. Their actions are meaningless.

Un Chien Andalou is a surrealist film written and directed by Luis Buñuel. Surrealism is influenced by Dadaism, it rejected logic and reason. It combined dream (unreal) with reality. The film’s title Un Chien Andalou (An Andalusian Dog) had no connections with film itself. I think automatic writing can be applied in this film. The author made this film with his unconscious mind. He created it without thinking about particular rules or concepts (Free writing). The film was abstract and absurd. Each Plot in the film had no meaning to me, but it did mean something (unconsciousness part of author’s creation). Ants were all over the man’s palm and it could go in and out of the body through the hold in the palm. Razor blade slicing through an eye. Dead donkeys were on the piano.  The man touched the woman’s breast. Same thing happen here, logic falls apart. No rational explanation.

Ballet Mecanique and Un Chien Andalou just like the bicycle picture showed in the class, it oppose to normal, tradition, and logic. But the bicycle itself does not have any meaning at all.

In Franz Kafka’s Judgment, Georg and the friend were business man. But they are opposite to each other. In the passage, the friend was in the foreign country Russia and running a business that didn’t profit for a while. Georg was the one who stayed at home and his business had unexpectedly increase over the two years.  Also, the friend who was a bachelor that didn’t have social relationships with local Russia families. In the other hand, Georg who was engaged with a girl from well-to-do family and had social life. The friend was described as ” he was a big child who simply had to listen to the successful friends.” The friend might represent people who is not able to use of his/her own reasoning without guidance of others (Kant’s idea). In the passage, the friend was described as immature and incapable of doing business. In the other hand, Georg was able to use his rational thinking ability to improve the business.  The description that Georg used to describe the friend shows that Georg felt proud of himself. He was better than the friend in everything. He is the one who can independently solve anything.

Frieda respond to the existence of the friend by “if you have such friends, you should never gotten engaged in the first place.” Frieda directly pointed out that Georg did not want to tell and invite the friend to their wedding. Frieda was criticizing Georg’s reaction toward the friend, Georg was trying to prevent the friend to come to their wedding. He was the one who hesitated to reveal the wedding to the friend but he blamed for both himself and Frieda (“we are both at fault”).  His hesitation and complain made Frieda felt disappointed and angry, that is why Frieda said “I really do feel offended”. After Frieda’s response, Georg suddenly decided to tell the wedding with the friend. This shows that Georg was not mature at all, he was the one that can be affected by others. Other people can make/affect his decisions. Georg’s response, “that is how I am, and that is how he must take me”. He was still believed that he is the one who had the most power and the friend must do as he said because the friend had no choice at all. The friend was so problematic because he had the ability to influence Georg. The friend made Georg became immature, incapable of dealing things on his own.

French and Industrial revolution, two most important social transformations that not just changed the outlook of the world. They also changed the way how people think, feel, and believe in the new society. In Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), Burke showed how French Revolution  formed social instability by threw away old traditions like the spirit of gentlemen and the spirit of religion. He also argued that what France need is reform not revolution, he demanded for Monarchic system to come back. In contrast, in Percy Bysshe Shelley’s A Defense of Poetry (1821) he advocated French revolution’s idea of Enlightenment. He believed that people with awareness of nature and rational thinking can work together to address problems in society. While Burke and Shelley both disagree on effects of French revolution on society, they both agree on that the importance of tradition, nature, freedom and etc. They both believe that rational thinking can not success without emotional, desire part of human. However, whereas Burke emphasizes on conservative perspective, he believes that French revolution is unnecessary, Shelley demonstrates that Revolution ideas/thinking (Poetry) can construct a better society and bring back things lost from past.

After presenting my own presentation on German (The Three Spinners), English (Tom Tit Tot) Folktale and observed presentation on Hawaiian folktale (The Despotic Chiefs of Kau), I believe that those stories are quite different. They are differ in terms of  culture, theme, and folktale writing style. But they are similar in purpose of recording stories.

I believe that geography play very important role in the formation of folktale and culture. Since Hawaii is an island and other two stories are from mainland of Europe. In term of culture. For German and English folktale, both stories share some common elements in tradition of European such as woman’s task —spinning flax, class difference (peasants— King and Queen), and emphasize on power of upper class man (King). In Hawaiian folktale, since Hawaii is an island people’s main daily task is fishing and class difference (man—chief). In Hawaiian folktale, we can feel people being oppressed hardly because of chief. (They have to give up all the fishes to the chief, left nothing to themselves).

In term of theme. Readers can get very different messages from those stories. In German and English folktale, it mainly focuses on woman’s traditional task-spinning and their classes. The only way woman can climbs the social ladder to escape the tradition (spinning) is through using trick. But final decision on whether or not they can climb the social ladder is on the King. This shows that no matter how hard lower level class people try to improve their social status, they will not success. The real power lie on the highest level of social class, they are the one who has the ability to change lower level class people’s fate.  In Hawaiian folktale, all three little stories show us that people suffered hardly under chief’s control (they have to give up all fishes, they have to prepare foods for chief and follow him to anyplace, and they are force to build temple that might result in killing themselves). They want to have rebellion against authorities that oppressed them so hard. They want to have a leader that can benefit all people in the island. And they executed, people finally free from chief’s control. It is all base on lower class people. They have the ability to overthrow the authority.

In term of folktale writing style. “The Three Spinners”, “Tom Tit Tot”and U.S Slave Stories all offered the fantasy of an escape from life of painful labor (Anthology pg.932). Hawaiian folktale, I think  it appears more real to me. It expresses in the way that can connect with people. The group presented the Hawaiian folktale also mentioned that French Revolution is very similar to those stories. They all deal with unpopularity of King/Leader, high tax burden on people. And finally, people who suffered from high tax burden rebel against King/Leaders to gain their freedom.

They are very similar in purpose of recording stories. German Grimm Bothers  collected and edited stories because they are afraid of Napoleon’s French armies invaded and imposed new laws will wipe out generation of tradition German lore. English folktale, Joseph Jacobs collected and edited stories because he is afraid of Grimm Brothers folktale stories will wipe out local England’s tradition. Finally, Mary Wiggen Pukui in Hawaiian folktale She was worried that given the upheavals in Hawaii, ancient oral traditional would be forgotten unless she recorded them.

French revolution changed the entire status of French society by violence. Edmund Burke pointed out that French revolution caused terrifying chaos on society because it destroyed old system (order) that inherited from the past. Burke ‘s observation on society is that people use rational thinking to justify, question, and revolt authority. During the process of rational thinking, people have lost their emotion, feelings, and nature. Burke’s view is related to Shelley. Shelley emphasized on idea of Romanticism (love, emotion,beauty of nature and etc.). “Poetry redeems from decay the visitations of the divinity in man.” He believed that poetry can have huge impact on man and society, poetry can help man to regain awareness to the surrounding (nature, emotion and etc.). With those awareness of emotion and nature, people can create a new humanized society rather than rationalized society. 

Declaration of the rights of Man and of the citizen and The rights of Woman, those two declaration of the rights are in the language form. They were expressed in words.  Language is some kind of order. Human creation of language shows that we as human want to follow orders and rules.  Shelley stated that “Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the World.” Since Poetry is based on both imagination (love, emotion,beauty of nature and etc.) and language (order). Shelley pointed out that new post-revolution society should base both on emotional thinking and rational thinking.

“The most unfailing herald, companion, and… receiving intense and impassioned conceptions respecting man and nature.” What Shelley trying to say is very similar to Kant’s view. People with awareness of emotional thinking and rational thinking can work together to address any problems in society or give opinions to institutions. They can come up ideas that can benefit the society as whole. Communicating freely and accepting ideas, reasons freely in the new post-revolution society is very important. The use of emotional thinking and rational thinking constructs a better humanized society.

Enlightenment, I used to understand it as the state of being enlightened which requires more that one person.  Just like the meaning in the story From Life of a Sensuous Woman. The woman was being enlightened by a man at the end, she changed her mind from commit suicide to devote herself to meditation. But, In the What is Enlightenment? by Immanuel Kant, he described Enlightenment as  man’s ability to make use of his understanding without direction from another. He believed that Enlightenment is based on freedom– everyone can use his or her reasons at any time in any place.

I think Kant’s points really make sense. He showed us the proper attitude toward learning and life. Society in 2017 is very different compare to society in 18th century, we do not have much restrictions on what we can think or express. But, many of us are still bounded by ourselves (we try to avoid questioning or challenging things that other people gave us because our laziness and helplessness). We get use to follow other people’s thought, advice, or etc…  For example,  Math. Since my minor is math, I took relatively more math courses than  business major with other minor. I think I never questioned about how we got the formula or theories. I took those formula or theories as facts without thinking. I do not want to dig into it because it is more works for me. Doing this does not harm my math course grade but it certainly harms my  progress in Math. If everyone is doing the same thing (take knowledge from another as facts without thinking), the society wouldn’t progress, the human would not progress.

The motto: Dare to know! should be our ideal attitude toward learning and life. We should have our own thought, ability of independent and rational thinking, and try to explore and understand things rather than take it as facts from others.