Follow Me Into the Desert...

Prof Frank's lecture

2009-05-01T14:57:00.000-07:00

Professor Frank's lecture regarding pain within a literary context was something I considered extremely interesting. For one thing, I have always enjoyed Homer's "Iliad" but never have looked at parts of it in the mindset that the concept of pain is used within the work.
One of the ideas that she brought up was regarding Hector's commitment to "Heroic Code" within the Iliad, where he felt the urge to fight and to die in the glory of battle rather than stay within the city, protected and with his family. This idea that one must earn their place in society through physical accomplishments is something that people would look at now and laugh at. The funny thing is, though, that our society is still very much focused on this part of life; seizing the moment all for the idea that one might win (it is never a sure thing) is still something that people see happening all around us, often without even realizing it.
Erin Striff mentioned it in her lecture as well, dealing with the idea of pain within sports. Fighting through the pain to win becomes important, and so does the idea that one must prove they deserve the victory through blood, sweat and tears. One of the differences, though, is that while most people back in the day (and in famous literature) used this pain and the glory to better themselves physically - whether it is for earning more power, land, or "the girl" - nowadays there is much more of a focus on bettering oneself emotionally. If someone is dealing with loss in their family, or if they are having a rough time coping with failure or disappointing things, now most people might do something like fight, run, or compete, and in the end they don't see their pay increase or have a better job, but they feel more control in their lives.
This topic of pain within literature, then, is more than just an interesting conversation starter. It is a sort-of timeline that documents how the idea of pain has changed with society, how the reasons and desires for putting themselves through that amount of effort and suffering can shift and yet still be just as popular.

Confederate States of America

2009-04-17T12:35:00.000-07:00

This movie was simultaneously funny, enlightening, and a little scary. For one thing, straight off the bat, the entire movie is put together in such a way that you are thinking that it is eerily possible things could have come out in that timeline of events if the South had gotten international support for the civil war. At the same time, though, you see commercials and parts that are more funny than informative, and you think "hey, there's no need to take this THAT seriously." Things for items like "N*ggerhair Cigarettes" (I don't know if Blogspot is going to take down the blog or anything if I say the whole thing) and a smorgasbord of other racist paraphernalia make you laugh at the absurdity of such items being advertised nowadays. At the end of the movie, though, when you find out most if not all of the items advertised were actually real products, some of which lasted until the late 1900's then your mind is blown and many preconditioned feelings towards society are overturned.
I cannot even comprehend a situation where we would be that intolerant of African American people; I guess that is just a testament to where we are as a society now in comparison to where we would presumably be had the North lost the civil war.
I also wanted to say that Canada beating everyone in the Olympics because they had free black citizens is hilarious, and I couldn't stop laughing when the narrator mentioned that.

How women are viewed in sports

2009-04-09T15:39:00.000-07:00

I feel like Erin Striff's lecture on pain throughout sports was extremely interesting. The focus on how women are portrayed actually struck me as the most interesting part, because I honestly had no idea (even as a communication student) that the depiction of women in situations like sports had been taken to such a level of flagrant sexism. The double standards in society are despicable, and there have been times in my life where I have noticed them and times in my life where I have not.
Seeing the women modeling the triathlon clothing made me laugh, because it seemed like an ad designed for men even though it was a woman's product. Granted I can see the whole "look how beautiful you'll be when you buy our product" angle, but I can't help but think that most women are smart enough to see right through the blatant manipulation. When you have a woman standing in front of a screen with her ass sticking straight out at the camera, I don't think to myself "oh ok she's clearly about to run/swim/bike a million miles."
The other stuff I hadn't really noticed was how much women are portrayed as the maternal figure, even in moments where they are victorious in some kind of monumental sporting event. Like the woman who won the olympic triathlon, and the most popular picture they had of her was of her holding her daughter after she won, not during and not immediately after the race, but only after enough time had gone by so they had a shot set up. Whereas with Michael Phelps, it was nonstop focus on him when he was in and out of the pool, and they would shoot the camera over to his parents but they didn't really depict him with any emotion other than happiness after he won all of his Olympic medals.
Sometimes the double standards aren't as obvious, but hopefully as they become more and more noticeable then the stereotypes and the different gender roles will be fully flexible.

Everything Is Illuminated

2009-03-25T22:51:00.001-07:00

I have seen this movie a few times now, and every time I see it I can't help but be amazed. It is impossibly difficult to allow comedy into a Holocaust related movie, for several obvious reasons; not only does director Liev Schriber accomplish this, and accomplish it well, but he uses the humor within the movie to move the audience rather than just make them giggle.
The fact of the matter is, the reason this movie hits me as profound is the juxtaposition of the humor vs the tragedy. In essence, this is a sad movie. It's really difficult to make a funny movie when it somehow relates to the Holocaust, and although this is definitely not Schindler's List, the fact of the matter is that it truly and profoundly is a sad movie. The way Liev Schriber takes that sadness, though, and places it next to ridiculousness, adds a lot of depth to the story. It basically allows you to feel humor, and the absurd ways people from two entirely different cultures clash, while you are experiencing the subtext of tragic loss and profound sadness. This new way of feeling when one is experiencing a movie about WWII does more than just make people laugh and cry, it lets individuals feel something atypical from other experiences of watching similar movies. Because you are feeling something entirely new, also, I think it adds to the layers of the movie. Not just about laughing, not just about crying, but about feeling something in a situation that doesn't seem normal, or natural, makes the entire situation more profound.
Overall I think this movie is fantastic, and it certainly fits withing the context of the Pain Seminar in more than one way.

The Falling Man

2009-03-06T08:12:00.000-08:00

This picture has haunted the minds of most Americans just as frequently as have the other images associated with September 11th, 2001. It is iconic of the despair felt by the nation; the image of the lone man leaving behind one terrible fate only in order to embrace another one. The picture stirs up all kinds of feelings for myself as well as most others that witness it; even those few people that weren't in either tower at the time of the attacks tend to feel the vibes of helplessness and sheer desperation that most of those trapped inside surely felt. This picture, like others of its kind that represent the largest times of suffering for humanity, inspires plenty of emotions and feelings that one can't help but endure. The feelings and thoughts running through my mind, however, are clearly different compared to those voiced by Esquire magazine.
While Esquire doesn't hesitate to paint this man as something more than he is, as a sort of symbol of American freedom, I have to point out some obvious facts. According to Tom Junod, the writer of the article, this man didn't choose his fate- but at the last moment he clearly "embraced it." Junod also doesn't hesitate to mention that at the last minute this man epitomizes the spirit of rebelliousness. The man is fighting physics, a law that can't be broken, in a fight he is destined to fail, but damn it he is still doing it.
After a bunch of fancy wordplay and imagery, I have to call shenanigans. While this image is certainly iconic, and represents the attitudes and sheer chaos and destruction that walks hand-in-hand with the attacks committed on September 11th, I feel like the writer of the article for Esquire is tarnishing this man's image. He is being painted to be some kind of American hero, as some kind of rebel-without-a-cause. James Dean meets world tragedy. In all honesty, all the writer seems to do for me is demean the man's memory by building him up to be something he is not. He is a man that jumped off of the WTC building to die in a preferable way to the alternative. He isn't someone who found himself where he was and decided to accept his fate while still not giving in. "Arms cocked rebelliously" turns into a man plummeting towards the ground in the last seconds of his life. He wasn't trying to make a statement, so why turn him into one?
No wonder the family responded so angrily. Because the writer tried to turn this man into something more than what he was, the last image and memory anyone has of him is false. Not only is it false, but it is a country-wide lie. While I do agree that the American people needed a hero to turn to during this time, changing a man's final memory to fit other purposes isn't right.

Harold and Maude

2009-02-27T01:45:00.000-08:00

Harold and Maude is a movie for the ages. Typically when I think of seeing old movies, I tend to immediately expect disappointment. I do not know where the bias came from, but for some reason there it is. This time, much like the other times I watch older movies, I was pleasantly surprised. Harold and Maude set out to teach the audience the things they are missing about their life. Watching this movie is meant to allow people to acknowledge everything about their lives and embrace them. Pain should be embraced, as well as pleasure. Death isn't the end, and nobody should let it be that for them.
The biggest thing that caught my eye was the different scenes with the various authority figures in his life, with pictures of THEIR authority figures behind them. The reasoning for this was as clear as day to me. This movie had a political message, there was no denying it. The fact that this movie was made in the seventies makes it even more obvious, when every time anyone did almost anything it was supposedly representing some "higher message"- which at that decade meant it was against whatever politics were going on. The crippled uncle who makes a fool out of himself every time he tries to salute and be patriotic had a picture of Nixon on the wall behind him; the creepy and overly sarcastic Priest had a picture of the Pope behind him, and Harold's overbearing psychiatrist had a picture of Freud behind him. The reason for each of these is to accomplish multiple things. First of all, it gives the impression that this boy - this young, free spirit - is stacked up vs the rest of the world. He is alone, overwhelmed, and outnumbered six to one. The other reason is because it is meant to show how different Harold is. While each of these three people are spouting the belief system of the people more powerful than they are, Harold bows down to nobody. He makes his own decision. And finally it comes down to the final thing; the depiction of how each of these men has one father figure who they embraced, and as such believe that Harold will embrace them as his missing father figure. Clearly we see that it doesn't happen, so the pictures are there to show, again, the big difference between Harold and society.
This movie was funny, deep, and quick witted. It was well done overall, and it went ahead and showed the way of life followed by many back then. Live life, don't fear death, and grow from the pain you experience.

Requiem for a Dream

2009-02-10T13:33:00.000-08:00

Requiem for a dream is one of my favorite movies of all time. It bring the issues related to drug and alcohol abuse to light in more of an intense way than movies had done before this. I think that is one of the more interesting aspects of the movie, aside from the whole flick itself; the fact that it was willing to push the envelope in order to get a statement across.

That's the other thing I noticed about this movie: it is very rare nowadays that a movie comes out that has an explicit moral or lesson. When movies like Superbad/Pineapple Express/Tropic Thunder are some of the biggest and most popular films it seems like the audience wants fewer and fewer lessons to be preached at them through their method of big screen entertainment, and more and more random laughs.

While I did enjoy the hell out of those movies, it really is kind of refreshing to get hit with a healthy dose of "here's something to take away from watching this" without having to resort to "survivorman" or "dirty jobs". The message in this movie is, to my understanding, do not lose sight of what is important whatever you do. The drugs they use throughout the movie do nothing other than provide a new focus for these peoples' lives to go on, or they make it so the people get so dependent that they can't even experience what they want to experience without the assistance of medication. Do not lose sight of what is important in life, and live every moment like it's your last. That's what I got from this movie anyway.

It's weird, but before I took this class I would not have thought that the utter abuse of alcohol and drugs could even get to the extent that the movie depicted; after reading about some of the things people have done, though, and after watching and talking about some of the things we've gone over in class my eyes have been opened, so to speak. The fact that people can get to that extent is now definitely something I'm more adjusted to, even though I haven't necessarily experienced it myself.

Push by Sapphire

2008-11-18T15:56:00.000-08:00

This book absolutely blew my mind. As soon as it started I had to reread the line about having her father's child a couple of times just to make sure I understood it correctly. Needless to say, the book got more intense from there.
The thing I thought was interesting was how Clarice seemed to be able to take control of parts of her life even though she was so hopelessly out of control when the story started. It seemed like her way of dealing with people was almost identical to the way her mom would treat people that she didn't like (for example Clarice), with either threats of violence, acting out and not putting up with anything from any other people, or demeaning people in her head where they can't hear her. I feel like talking to herself is probably one of the first ways she learned how to defend herself from the ritualistic savagery she was dealing with at home.
The way the book is written, oddly enough, is one of the reasons why I feel like I can truly connect with Clarice. Although the things that have happened to her and her general way of life are so completely the opposite of my own, the characterization of her through the writing style allow me to really put a more humanized outlook on what I read. I get the idea that this is someone to whom life has been nothing but abusive, but at the same time she really doesn't understand it because it is all that she knows.

Pain and Music

2008-11-11T14:51:00.000-08:00

I feel like the relationship between music and expressing pain is a tough one to boil down. Going by what I get from pop culture nowadays, a lot of the modern artists I feel exploit the idea of "the suffering artist" in order to amass a larger fan base and sell more albums. In some ways, one might say, you have to respect that as well. The artists that do this to make a buck are enough in tune with the pain and suffering some people can go through in order to write a song that everyone can feel related to, so that has to count for something, right?
Not so much, in my personal opinion. Nowadays, in our culture, I would argue that more people know of various types of physical and emotional pain rather than actually feel that way, thanks to various pop culture movements and the art of making cookie cutter movies. In my opinion, it is this knowledge, followed by the "fear of pain" that causes us to relate to the first embodiment of that pain we actually see, and it is that knowledge of how we are supposed to react to pain (thanks to songs, movies, etc) that then dictates how we actually react. Which then, in turn, leads us to buy more albums from that one artist that just totally gets it. This self perpetuating cycle is seemingly endless, and kind of depressing if it is true. But while I am cynical, I also can think of it from the other point of view.
On the flipside, there is no denying that there are artists that use music as a mode of self expression. Hell, they ALL might even do that, but I don't entirely buy that there are no artists out there faking pain to make a buck. Back to the point, though; some people, like Kurt Cobain from Nirvana, were generally messed up. Music then most likely became a way of letting those few people put their experiences and feelings into words; in a way, like the transition from the Chaos Narrative to the Quest Narrative. These songs are essentially the artist's journey through a painful experience, and when they are all put together they seem to provide a self-medicated storyline that almost anyone can listen and connect to.
Clearly the situation changes with the artist, song, and topic, but I feel in general that it is one way or the other.

Tweak

2008-11-04T15:46:00.002-08:00

Nic Sheff's Tweak is a book that is difficult to read. Not because the wording is particularly hard to understand, or because he says things I find it hard to relate to; on the contrary, it is disturbingly easy to follow where he is at in this book and recognize how he got there. It is a fantastic book, and it makes me want to read the one written by his father so I can get a perspective on his story from the man Nic has the utmost respect for.
It is not too difficult to connect with Nic in this story - I haven't gotten to the point he is at and I don't have any issues with addiction, but I see the reasoning behind what started him on that path and I can connect with it. The feelings he had and his life around him resonates a lot with the way I felt growing up and the lives of some of my friends, and it is not difficult to see myself or others in a completely different place and state of mind if we had reacted in the same ways he had.
Nic seems to be a man that is just trying to run from life, and from the normalcy he saw himself heading towards. He talked about wanting to excel at almost anything, and that his desire for attaining perfection drove him to start doing the things he did. It is interesting, because you hear about the stories of addicts a lot nowadays thanks to half the shows on TV and most celebrities being very open with the things they do - a lot of these people seem to do it more because it was convenient, or because they had a really crappy home life and didn't know how to handle it; most of Nic's life growing up, aside from dealing with a strenuous relationship between his birth parents, was spent doing fairly well for himself. Great at school, surrounded by friends and family but still feeling like an outsider, eventually he needed an escape from the life he had built up around himself and it led to to his addiction. This story is, without a doubt, easy to read - this combined with how simple it is to connect to on many levels made it difficult to put the book down.

Saw V

2008-11-04T15:46:00.001-08:00

Saw V, the newest movie in the cash-magnet franchise, is not exactly a big deviation from the concepts set forth by its predecessors. While the movie's twists and turns are definitely out there, and in some cases might even be getting a tiny bit redundant, the real draw power of these movies comes from the mind twisting torture scenes and the idea that people could be put through these demented sort of games in order to be taught a lesson.
It is a kind of guilty pleasure for both myself and people I know to go to the movies and see a man being cut into multiple pieces in a sort-of "Pit and the Pendulum" style moment. Granted I wouldn't do this to anybody else, and you can be sure I don't want a draft going through my midsection, but there is without a doubt a sort of perverse fascination with scenes of typical people doing these types of things to each other. I think that the reason people can't get enough of things like this comes from the fact that we really can't see ourselves or other people doing these sorts of things, so when the images are put forward in front of our eyes we are forced to associate with these acts in ways we never really wanted to - essentially it allows us to live vicariously through the movies and characters portrayed on the big screen.

The Wounded Storyteller

2008-10-21T15:49:00.000-07:00

I thought this book was extremely interesting; Arthur Frank's explanation of each kind of pain narrative especially struck me as key for understanding how people deal with different kinds of pain.
The example used with Job in particular was very thought provoking. Explaining Job's situation as a puzzle shows a lot about our current culture; certainly it allows us to see that there was a reason for his suffering, that in the end he is happy again and rewarded for his fortitude in that terrible situation. If the story had gone a different way, however, and he was not rewarded, people would not have gotten anything of value from the story. It seems that we are looking more and more for the reason that things happen - because of the story of Job, so many people in desperate times can say "well it is all part of God's plan" and survive day to day. If there had not been any restitution for Job, now people would see it as a mystery. A problem unsolved and not likely to ever be solved, and as such it seems less worthwhile for people to keep faith in hard times and believe in a higher power. I just think it is interesting how so much of people's lives can be explained in that one simple example, that people need to be able to see the good coming out of a situation to deal with it. Granted it isn't like this all across the board, but most people I know, and myself in certain situations, react that way without a second thought.

9/11 Graphic Novel

2008-10-07T15:25:00.000-07:00

I enjoyed this graphic novel a lot; it is common knowledge about what happened on September 11th, 2001, and aside from documentaries, movies, and history books, I had thought that all possible mediums for getting different perspectives on the incident were running out - evidently this is not so. Putting the commission's report into the form of a graphic novel could have been done for more than one reason; whether to allow an artist to take personal liberties in how they want to depict the people in charge, or maybe just to spread the public knowledge on the actual report filed by the commission and what the findings happened to be - it is a lot easier to get a sense of what went wrong when you can combine the words you read with pictures of the situation.
The thing that I thought was most interesting was that it was based off of the actual 9/11 commission reports, and was cleared by the government to be turned into graphic novel form; right when I started reading it I could see how badly the government figures were being depicted, something that struck me as peculiar after how much effort the people in charge put into saving face. Granted they owned up to the fact that things were handled as badly as they could have possibly been handled, but the real extent of how seriously inept the countries leaders are shown to be in this graphic novel caught me by surprise.
Overall I enjoyed the way this was put together, and although the sometimes unfamiliarity and formality of the language made it a bit difficult to read without it seeming like an essay with pictures, I knew since it was based on the official report that I shouldn't expect too much else.

Eternal Sunshine

2008-09-30T22:04:00.000-07:00

Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind is one of my favorite movies; I've seen it at least ten times and every time I do I manage to get a whole new outlook on almost all aspects of the movie.
The one thing that popped into my head when we saw it in class this time was how ironic the position of the doctor who ran the memory erasing program was. His entire profession seemed to be devoted to the idea that people, wanting to avoid pain, should be able to erase it from their lives. By doing this, however, he only seems to be creating more pain both for himself, his loved ones, and his patients.
A good example of this would have to be when his secretary is on the phone with a woman who had apparently had the memory erasing program happen several times, to the point where she keeps re-enacting the issues that she wants to forget. It comes down to the point that he seems to be living for causing pain to others. Even when what he is doing comes back and bites him in the ass, when he loses his wife and secretary, both of whom he has feelings for, he doesn't cease his work. It is like he accepts it and keeps living his life, like causing pain in everyone else would inevitably lead to pain within himself, something he does not seem to want to lose.
Overall, "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" does a fantastic job of opening peoples' eyes up to different sources of pain in our lives, and how we might react to them.

About Me!

2008-09-16T15:15:00.000-07:00

My name is Rich, double majored in both English and Communications at the University of Hartford. I don't know what else to say about me, so I'll just explain why I picked the title I chose for the blog. When I think pain throughout history, one of the first things that pops into my head is music. Grunge music in particular, the steadfast picks like Nirvana are obvious, but I figured I would go in another direction. Soundgarden is one of my favorite bands, and this is the opening line to one of my favorite songs by them. Without going too much into it, the song is about someone asking for anybody to feel bad for him even though he is in a situation he put on himself, and the person he is asking is going through pain of their own. This is a very, very boiled down description, but it also leads me to a thought going through my head when applying for this course. Why do people bring pain on themselves, and then when they realize they feel bad because of it afterwards, they demand others share their pain, or help them lose it? It happens all of the time, and seems to be a basic reaction to pain for most people.

Anyway, this was a perfect example of me getting distracted and intensely off topic, which honestly is a pretty darn good way of describing who I am!

I hope this helps!

Response to "PAIN: The Science of Suffering"

2008-09-16T14:45:00.001-07:00

All-in-all, I have to say I really did enjoy Patrick Wall's book. It delved far deeper into the science of, well, suffering, then I have to say I have ever really thought about before. Possibly one of my favorite parts of the book occured early on, in chapter four. This chapter, called "The Whole Body" details the various ways that the body may respond to a pain-related stimulus. It went into a lot of detail regarding the ways that humans and animals would react to pain, throughout several stages. One of the biggest reasons why this chapter interested me was that it offered a kind of explanation as to why someone that gets badly injured might be able to ignore that pain and focus on ways to get out of the painful situation; I had always assumed that the reason was because of nothing more than a rush of adrenaline, the kind of end-all be-all excuse for action movies and certain situations in real life alike. To think that the brain is so complex that it can be aware of pain, but at the same time comprehend that there are more important matters at hand not only floors me, but also confuses me. This idea seems to tie in strongly with the concept that the mind and body are two seperate entities - this is the concept of dualism, an idea that I feel has some merit, but at the same time I am unsure how to feel about the idea that decisions for how I might act in a certain situation are already decided for me. Granted, it is good to know that I might automatically not feel pain if I am in a situation where I need my wits completely about me, and it is good to know that there is a set of behavior I might automatically follow in order to make sure I heal completely, but I am still unsure of how to feel about the whole concept in general.

Wall's method of writing is certainly very detailed, and I personally liked the fact that he included a chapter about the physical/medical terms regarding the effect of pain on one's body; this helped clear up a lot of issues I had about understanding the specific terminology and the physical way it all worked.