From Dante's presentation of Francesca and Paolo, he brings to mind the question of moral responsibility in depictions of love, sex, and violence in our own day. Check out the below links. *The Killing Screens: Media & the Culture of Violence (not for the light-hearted!)
So what's up with our centuries long obsession with sax and violins? Why do we want to read The Inferno and not the Paradiso? Why are we always involved in "death work"? Reference Tyson's section on the death drive and give us a few answers. (I love how I have students to answer life's important questions for me!)
16 comments:
I have yet to have a chance to fully explore all the links, and when I do I will be back. However let me toss something out there...
Alot of times the topics of love, sex (especially sex), and violence are considered taboo. Most people have that internalized theory (as stated in our "lit crit" books) that these things are bad,sinful and not right. I personally believe that people are more curious of things that are not "supposed" to have. Its like when mom tells you that you can't have that fresh baked cookie on the pan, all the sudden that cookie looks all the more delicious. Maybe I'm way off here but those are my thoughts.
P.S: Cute plays on words "sax and violins"
i agree with what you are saying...but it seems like the media is getting worse with what they are putting in movies and other things, i remember growing up sex and violence were next to impossible to find on tv or movies...and now we have little kid shows, like spongebob, making sexual references to things. and in some circumstances maybe it is "taboo" but i also think that kids (or teens imparticular) are not getting the right message across how do you explain all the teen pregnancies? im not saying go out and let your child watch porn but maybe we should be explaining more to kids? just a thought.
putting blocks or censors is, in some cases, almost pointless, bc out of everyone i knew growing up almost all of them knew how to get around the parents block on the tv...and lets be honest how many ppl know how to get around a block on the computer at school? alot of people.
i agree that little kids watching violence is bad and alot of people are complaining about it but i also see that no one had done anything about it...my question is why dont we go back to the "simple world of yesterday" (as i hear people call it), where none of this is one tv or why cant parents step up to the plate and talk to their children about what is right and wrong...? yes i get that some kids wont listen but at least they are getting exposed to the difference between right and wrong...
I believe that some parents of today think that it is okay to let there children observe violence or sexual material. They believe if the TV is playing it on a "kid friendly" channel then it must be alright to watch. But in reality this is just demoralizing our society to something we do not want it to become. If today's children are growing up accustomed to sex and violence then their children will most likely do the same. Is this the tradition we want to pass on from our generation? Our future government or even churches may become more "relaxed" when it comes to these topics-and that is not morally correct. Is this what we want society to become- a war zone?
This topic goes back to Frued's idea of death work in the sense that violence creates death. The human mind finds violence interesting because they know it could happen to them. Also we may believe that watching a TV show is not as great of a sin as actually committing a violent act. This idea of being able to be slightly sinful without committing a sin with our actions creates our curiousity for negative subjects like death, violence, or sex. So... my question is why don't we, like the FCC was saying, restore our high expectations for society to keep this world a better place for future generations?
As for why we read the Inferno and not the Paridoso,I believe we take more interest in knowing what the worst possible situation could be rather than knowing what good things could happen. We do not fear good, we fear evil. As humans, we also may believe that if we learn from other's mistakes (like Dante did through the sinners) we will be less likely to suffer from these same mistakes.
I believe that parental controls are okay, I am not against it. I work with kids so I watch a lot of cartoons and kids shows. Has anyone ever seen Chowder or The Adventures of Flapjack? Those are some messed up shows. It seems that the writers are on crack. But I also don't believe that if a child were to watch violence that they would be more inclined to act violent.
In the article Media Spurs Fears, it say that more research needs to be done to know if seeing violence, a child will more likely participate in violence. Also, "it can be hard to montior their children's media habits." How? A parent can put a block on tv the computer, and just not allow their children to play violent video games. Well what if my child were to go over to a friends house and be exposed to violence, a parent might ask. Then it is your job to contact your child's friends parents and let them know that your son/daughter is not allowed to do or watch. It is that simple.
Another article used the video game Grand Theft Auto as an example. My thought is that if someone were to go out and recreate the violent acts shown on the video game then they had a detachment to the real world anyways, so there was a problem from the start.
A comment said that, "If it bleeds, then it leads." pertaining to news media. I think that this goes back to our death drive, and everyone's morbid curiosity towrds death. Why is that we need to hide these images and thoughts from children, why not adults?
Even though there is violence on just about every media available, I find easy to avoid. Just go outside and enjoy the weather because there is no media to be seen. If everyone is so concerned about the violence that their kids are exposed to then just turn off the tv and get them involved in sports or do a family activity. Plus there are more important problems in the world then getting laws passed to decrease violence when someone is always going to find a way around it.
Hey there I'm back again and ready to blog!
The "Death Drive," as its says means that we all have a some part of use that yearns or is curious about the realities of death. Death has always been viewed as a symbol of fear, of abandonment, of intamcy, of betrayal, and many others. It gives that person the feeling,"Well why did I have to die," or how could they be intament towards life and at the same time not obsessing over it.
Most of these things are shown around the world today through popular media like movies, music, games, and novels. We as human beings have always been fascinated by the truth of death and people in the medi play that card to reel us in and make it more than a curiosity. Obsessed much! HaHaHa
Anyway, I agree with what froggie frog and Kellie have said. Ha! froggie frog. Well anyway, back to the point, the role of media towards the subject of violence, the Death Drive, and other things have had negative and positive response on fans. Thats all I got for now I'll be back again!
Death is the ultimate unknown and everybody has this fear of it. I think we all want to know as much as we can about death so we're better prepared for when we face death. I think that's a pretty common theme with any fear someone might have. Knowledge is power, and with knowledge you might be able to overcome the fear. We're curious because we want to learn, we want to know about death.
In another one of my classes, I had to read "Brave New World". The book is set about 500 years into the future. In the book they desensitize everyone to death at a very young age by forcing them to work in these Hospitals for the Dying. The children are conditioned to accept death and make a natural part of life. They're given ice cream and all the best toys are kept in these Hospitals for the Dying, so that they're very happy whenever they visit them, the government brainwashes them into not having a fear of death. This future also has made sex just a social activity, love and relationships have been made obsolete and barbaric. "Everyone belongs to everyone else," is the creed of this new world. The book relates to the death drive since the government in this future world have basically tried to destroy it. It's an interesting, but very scary concept.
Its an interesting concept to desensitize children to death. I might have to pick up that book now. Does anyone think that this is a good concept? (maybe not like a great idea that should be practiced, but more along the lines of a way of dealing with death. If that made any sense.)
Thanks for the Brave New World reference Colby. What an astute comparison--to bring up Brave New World and how that society has tried to deal with the death drive. That book is amazing, and I need to reread it as an adult. Fishie fish, you would probably really like it.
I just looked at this blog, I hope to acquire some "quotable quotes" soon (this is my excuse for jumping in to the blog ill prepared), but from what I can see the main problems seem to be the balance between, teaching children about the certain inadequacies that come with life, meaning that do we teach children about sax and violins?, If so how much do we teach?, I believe that teaching is essential, but teaching children too much, or too early can have negative effects, but sax and violins is an important part of mainstream society, any ideas on balance?, I don't particularly spend a lot of time considering my parenting skills, seeing as I'm not planning to have kids at this stage of my life. Oh, and fishie fish, on your first post I think you were hinting upon the concept of "Reverse Psychology", am I correct?
Are sax and violins inadequacies? I don't think sax is. . .maybe how we treat it in mainstream media--use it to debase people instead of looking at it in a more healthy way. R, you bring up some interesting points.
Gonnie i think to answer your question most adults can handle seeing violence and other things in the media because they are more mature and know that the things are not real, where kids on the other hand are not that knowledgeable about it...and maybe the grandtheft auto game wasnt the best example but i think it got the point across pretty well. and i do agree with you when you said that people just need to turn off the tvs and go outside, however in some cases that is easier said than done...R, you do bring up some good points and some things to think about...i dont think that it is really "reverse psychology" have you ever been in a situation where you wanted something and then the minute someone tells you, you cant have it you want it even more? thats what i was kinda trying to get at i dont know about fishie fish tho? and colby that does sound like a very interesting book im going to have to go get it too, and i agree with you about the whole fear thing.
the obsession with sex in my opinion is that it has to happen, and is then seen as "animal". Man sees himself as a higher being then other animals and sex brings him back down to a "lower" level of functioning, something that requires no thinking. its bad be cause it could be considered degrading.
i do not think that people are born as seeing it as bad, as fishie fish said at the top. my argument is from Frued's stages, particularrly the phallic stage. this stage happens naturally and with no promting, its only shown to be bad when the parents react to it. our thought of sex being bad is learned.
on obsession with violence, see colby's post i mostly agree with it. but not all violence is death, there are many scenes of rape torture along with lots of excessive gore in movies, curiosity of death does not make me want to see that.
a funny thought on violence in the media, well i find it funny anyway:
http://i883.photobucket.com/albums/ac36/advlitsurpics/cah2.jpg
After much thought, I think that we are attracted to the concepts of death, sex, and violence because, these are things that we can't immediately create a feeling for, for example, if I feel sad I can talk to someone or look at a beautiful image or natural image, but what if I want to see death, in total honesty, my heart jumps when I see police cars surrounding a central focal point because, personally I get a rush out of seeing twisted metal or blood, because these violent images, create feelings that I cannot create without being near a violent act, however, due to the large amount of hardship and repeated death in my own life, I don't see sadness in death, I see it in a logical sense, I am a very logic based person, so I see death as a necessary occurrence, I used to ponder existence and the death concept but after much deliberation I decided that in my opinion the concept of a soul, is nothing but the electrical reaction between synapses in the brain, and when our lives cease to exist, the electricity stops and the brain ends its function, as dark as this sounds, I am a very happy person, I just don't see the need for any emotional attachment to the dead, the dead are just hollow shells the electricity is gone, as for the sexual aspect, sex in itself is a very interesting aspect, while one of the most beautiful rituals discovered by humans it can and usually winds up being very barbaric, because as humans we are not content, self-control is the only thing we have to fight this phenomenon, but when we are weak our barbaric lust creates different personas, personas filled with rage, lust, and usually classified as evil, this makes sex a very interesting issue, honestly whenever I see an amber alert, I think "well thats horrible, but at least I can control myself" as bad as that sounds I think many of us find comfort in comparing ourselves with criminals and patting ourselves on the back, which is how we begin to distort what is right and wrong, thinking that it is alright to do something bad because someone else did something worse, we believe that since we are doing something bad but it is a small crime compared to that rapist on the news, or that murderer on death row, but it is we are still choosing to do the wrong things, which makes us bad people, even though we won't acknowledge it, for example the Salem witch trials, the puritans did not believe in murder, it was a sin, but they were willing to murder because the "witches" had committed far worse crimes, so the puritans internally decided that murder was allowable, well I have rambled too long now, I tried to keep focused on the main points so what do you think?
Yeah--R, I think you make some very interesting points! I thank you for your post, and I hope that some of the other students still check it out even though we have moved on to our Marxist/MacBeth unit.
I think people should calm down about media violence. If parents are so worried about their children being exposed to harmful things, they should just move to Antarctica. Yes, you should not let your children watch slasher movies, but I was watching predator, alien, terminator, pretty much all creature thriller movies when I was seven. I really have a hard time believing that violence causes people to be more violent because this isn't just in our society. In gladiator times they watched people get ripped to shreads like how we watch a football game. People like to see others in pain because it's interesting. I don't think that's going to lead you to go kill someone.
Aha, I am elated to discover that I am not the only one that comments on old posts, well between the bars I think that maybe people are worried about violence because, lets say that a person is raised in a harsh environment and is psychologically affected in a negative way, usually when someone feels there is no way out they sadly, commit suicide, but lets say that a person is beaten as a child and develops a hatred for authoritative figures, now said person wants a way to release the stored emotion and these violent images portray ways that might make them feel better, and each and every time they see violence it antagonizes them, until they finally seek this feeling of superiority by taking the ultimate gift of life from someone else, now lets say that the violent images weren't around, the person might of still murdered someone, but with out that antagonizing violent imagery, the person might of found a more constructive way to express him/herself. Can you see where I am coming from? You may not be affected by slasher films, but a more demented person may not have the luxury of being able to distinguish reality from illusion. I used to volunteer at a school for the mentally impaired over summers and, let me tell you, some of those kids, kids that no one wants to deal with, they don't have a warm home, or caring parents, and they are just looking for a negative influence to fuel their path to self-destruction, I can listen to them but I can't change the fact that the world has chewed them up and spit them back out, so violence just gives them motive, and it's very sad to look at it that way, but outside the "common" world, there are darker things going on, and you hear about people reforming or being "cured", but in reality there are millions of people that can't cope with the reality of life and choose to behave negatively so they can be isolated from the world that burdens them so, sorry I went off on a rant, but it relates, you can't just compare your personal experience, because there are six billion people on this planet, all of which have different experiences and react to things differently thereof.
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