In Conclusion....

When I first walked into this class, I thought that it was going to just be one of those classes where you read a bunch of books and talk about them and move on.  I was very wrong.  This class has actually revamped my desire to read.  It taught me to look for the "deeper meaning"  inside of works of literatue.  Previously I would read just for the story, which always left me with the thought "what is the point of reading, its just a story right?  I've come to the conclusion that this is wrong.  Inside of literature there is an amazing amount of information that can be incorporated in everyday life. 
     Just like in "Feed," the story was about this technological network that a majority of people were connected to constantly through the installation of a chip on a person's brain at a young age.  The story itself was pretty good but when we talked about it in class, I realized that the book is trying to teach us that an overindulgence in technology, can be extremely detremental to ourselves as part of society.  The people couldn't think for themselves, the corporations ruled the country, and the ideas of consumerism flourished.  The people accepted everything at face value and throughout thr book you could see how minipulative the government was to its people.  This book was a good transition from "Culture Jam"  where we learned about how our generation is becoming "dumb" because of the over use of technology (even though I didn't agree with much of it). 
     Another theme we spent a good portion of the class talking about is "reality" TV, even though there is nothing real about it.  The book "Hunger Games" did a very good job of further explaining this topic.  The book was very well written and I found myself engaged in page after page of text, I couldn't stop reading.  It shows how reality TV is influenced by the audience.  The more money they donated to certain competetors, the more supplies those competitors got.  So the competition wasn't fair, it was based on popularity in which the most popular competitor was given the biggest advantage. 
    All in all I really enjoyed this class, even though I had far less than a positive mind set coming into it.  The enjoyment of reading that I used to get when I was younger has been re-instated and I find myself with a book in my hands far more often than I have in the previous 5 years in my life.  The class gave me a look at the way the world is, and what could potentially happen if we let things get out of control or if we become too lazy.  Plus group 6 is awesome it has been fun working with all of you and goodluck on all your finals and your remaining time in Ship! 

censor-"SHIP"

A world without books?  It seems like a very grim world to live in.  A life without books is like a life without music, a life lacking creativity and unique thought.  "A life without knowledge is death in disguise"- Talib Kweli & Mos Def, Blackstar. Works of literature are not just written for the sake of the consumer, but has a much deeper form of self expression for the writer.  Books are a good way to understand the ideas and concepts that are unique to another individual.  A world without this form of self expression would be very uniform and there would be a serious lack of individuality.  Another big problem without books is that everything is done from memory and this would cause confusion because stories would be different and over time would get mistranslated, or misinterpreted and the meaning would change as the years went on.  Books are like a time capsule for someones thoughts, creativity, or self expression, once words are put inside it they will remain there until it is open (just like a time capsule)  As TV is being more integrated into everyones lives, it is almost as if we were sitting there just burning pages.  Page after page is being lost as show after show is being watched, and why might this be a problem?  A lot of television shows today provide zero knowledge and are made just to appeal to the masses for higher ratings and more money (look at Jersey Shore, I feel like my IQ is cut in half after every episode).  As the days go on you can see more and more people getting lost in the realm of television.  I have tons of friends who will lay around and watch TV on a beautiful day and not think twice about it, it's sad.  All in all I hope that we are never forced to live in a world without books.

What the audience wants the audience gets

The hunger games does a good job supporting the themes that we have been learning about in class. It shows how reality shows are not "real" because they get manipulated to improve ratings.  This also ties into the themes of consumerism because the more of these shows that we "consume" the more money they make. What the audience wants the audience gets.  This causes the reality aspect of these shows to disappear and makes them just as much a work of fiction as spider man.   Hunger Games shows us what could potentially happen if a capitalistic driven government has complete and unquestionable power over its people.  All they were concerned about was making money even if it involved innocent children being forced to kill each other.  One thing is for sure. I never want to live in a society like that, and I feel like if we start to neglect our own freedoms, we could very easily end up in a similar situation.