The dissolution of a term

A interesting linking page for the abuse of freedom as a term.
A little insubstantial, and rather left wing, but a lot of interesting links to various government programs appropriating the word freedom.

Is this terrorism?

So this isn’t too academic a post, but I couldn’t resist with V for Vendetta still under discussion.
Ick

This link leads to an article about an auction for a book bound in the skin in one the Guy Fawkes conspirators. Seems like it would inflict quite the psychical wound to anyone who commiserated with that [...]

Happiness After September 11

I figured that rather than respond to Sean I’d open up a longer post on this reading.
I thought it was cool that “Happiness After September 11” included a lot of familiar concepts that you wouldn’t typically expect to see in a formal essay.  I read it over Thanksgiving Break and stopped several times to say, [...]

Indecision

When I started reading Indecision I expected it to be another novel with dystopian themes and ideas about terrorism. However, I found this book to be less about terror and more about our ignorance to its existence. It seems like the main character Dwight is immune to the terrorism around him. 9/11 is an event [...]

deconstruction Books vs. movies

We have all been brought up in unique ways that shape our interests, and it is those subtle environmental distinctions that form how we interpret literature. “Deconstruction aims to remind us of the arbitrary and unstable nature of language by taking text apart.” This type of theoretical stance helps in weeding out the works that [...]

Response to The Spirit of Terrorism

Baudrillard lays out a scary picture of terrorism in The Spirit of Terrorism. Terrorism is presented as something intangible and undetectable, something that can’t be stopped by force. Since 9/11 terrorism has taken on a new face. Everyday we are bombarded by ideas of terrorism in the media—from constant images of the twin towers falling [...]

Journals, Science, and Passion

John’s presentation definitely affected my reading of The Children of Men. I saw the movie first.  I saw it this summer and hated it.  But I love the novel.  I was pretty blown away by the two main themes I took out of just the first few pages–themes which remain significant throughout, in my opinion.  [...]

The Movie vs. Book Debate of Death

John’s presentation concerning film interpretations of books left me a little peeved. I realized I failed to articulate my arguments clearly, so here they are:
I completely understand the necessity of changing dialogue, modifying plots, emphasizing special effects, and so on. A movie can never reproduce a book in its entirety; the very idea is laughable. [...]

Life With Only Death

Since the Omegas were grouped together and treated as gods among men they did form a very distinct clique. Like the book says the Omegas were the most studied and revered generation of all time. The intrigue was almost too great for society to handle all at once. I think the book “Children of Men,” [...]

Truth and Power

The struggle for social control through economic and political manipulation has been a problem that all great civilizations have had to deal with. To gain a level of control sometimes the legitimacy of some regulations or policies have to exaggerated a little bit by those in power for the “benefit” of society. This is where [...]