Thoughts about Neilson's repetitive article

so of course by now we all hopefully realize that the things they carried is a collection os stories about the vietnam war-what happened before, during and after it- and the stories are told by O'Brian a supposed vietnam veteran. From what Neilson said in his worth while, os fun to read article, he thinks that the book is postmodern.

so why does Neilson think that the things they carried is postmodern? Vietnam, like many other wars does not fit what most would call a war, or the definition of a war...a conflict carried on by force of arms, as between nations or as between parties within a nation, as by land, sea or air. Neilson says that "the war, according to the critics, was defined by uncertainty in motivation, history, strategy, official rhetoric, media representations, identification of friend or foe." You think you understand that, well Neilson probably didn't think anyone would, so he just kept saying the same thing over and over again, just worded differently.

okay, this line caught my attention, and hopefully other people's, " the weakness of the things they carried is that O'Brien's imagination is virtually the only reality. O'Brien does not contexualize his expierences, does not provide us with any deeper meaning of the causes and consequences of war, and does not see beyond his individual expierence to document the vastly greater suffering of the Vietnamese." People didn't ask for the war to happen, US soldiers weren't asked to be thrown into battle, and the Vietnamese people weren't asked to have their homes and country destroyed or the family members to be killed.

Well to end this, I hope whomever reads this had a nice weekend, and had an enjoyabke time reading the article and finishing the book.

read more

The Things They Carried

The Things They Carried is a very interesting book-it is a book full of short stories,which I thought would make it confusing, but wierdly, you can see into Tim O'Brien's head; for example, his true feelings about the war, his time in the war, and well, many more things, like Martha.

Something that comes up a lot is silence. In "How To Tell a True War Story"silence is talked about. O'Brien is told a story about 6 guys going on a Listening Patrol in the mountains. They had to be in the silence for a week, after awhile they started hearing noises-they report this, well enemy movement and warrant an air strike. Even after the attack, they still hear noises. What made these men go crazy-silence? Later O'Brien asks the man, "what's the moral?" "forget it." "No, go ahead.""Hear that quiet, man?" "That quiet-just listen. There's the moral" (O'Brien 77).

The theme of silence also comes up when Rat Kiley is kill the poor baby buffalo. The buffalo did not make any noise the whole time it was being tortured.

Silence, in this book, and all this situations is a horrible thing, it is something that can be really destructive and something that is not wanted.

read more

Post-Modern Blog Finally-Internet Now Working, Sorry Mr. D

Okay, this first semester of of senior year is done, we are almost through, but though we are almost done, I think I will always be confused about what Postmodernism actually is.

It is the concept if not having a universal truth-not having a right or wrong way to see things. Postmodernism is about having different concepts that coexist with each other. Maus for example. Who in their right mind would ever think that the Halocaust could be dipicted in a graphic novel. Though many people would think that it being made into a graphic novel was bad, in my opinion it helped to show that stories can be shown more than one light. I think the central idea of postmodernism is the theory of naratves/meta-narratives and truth of lies. In the end, I just think postmodernism is people believing things differently. Everyone in the world is not going too wake up one day and magically think the same thing; that is what I think Postmodernism is trying to tell us, that we all have our ideas and that we shouldn't let other people try to change what we think.

Still, I think Postmodern can mean too many things to too many different people, that I can't fully wrap my mind around it. I am glad though, that I have learned about something that otherwise I would have never known existed.

read more

Finally able to post my opinion on Maus, my internet is finally working!

A few people have been talking about how they are not sure about this book because of the fact that it is a graphic novel, I think it being a graphic novel is perfect. I don'treally read comic books, I find they are too short and that I read them too fast, that is why I stick with novels. I usually stay away from comics, unless they are free or I am forced to read them. But I would have to say I am glad I was forced to read this one. I might not be an avid comic reader, but this is something that everyone should read. It covers aspects of history which is unusual for a comic, which makes this one different than everyother comic that I have read; which isn't that many, so there may be more of this same kind of comic.

Hmm, so what I am going to wrtie about in my essay? I will talk about Scott McCloud's artciles, I could talk about how comics can be a storytelling medium. I could analyze how Maus conveys the author's intent through comic devices that McCloud pointed out. Oh and I could also talk about Spiegelman uses animal masks at the beginning of the second chapter.

Hmm...I can also write about why Spiegelman decided to have his father's story a graphic novel. The halocaust was a huge tragedy and the fact that he made it a comic shows something about the man behind the comic, but what exactly? I would also like to talk about the different types of animals Spiegelman makes people. I might also talk about how Art abuses his fathers' willingness to talk about the Halocaust. Art creates the tension that he believes his father is a source of because he is constantly asking for his father's story about what happened to him during the Halocaust.

I think I will also talk about the theme of luck withing the graphic novel. Vladek is a "survivor of the Halocaust because of all the luck he had during it; this luck he encountered affected him because he felt bad that he survived while many others did not.

Well I rambled for awhile, I hope I can fit this all in one essay.

read more