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Paprike(2006) - Satoshi Kon’s Dreamland Invasion

Paprika (Japanese: パプリカ) is a 2006 Japanese science-fiction anime film co-written and directed by Satonshi Kon, based on Yasutaka Tsutsui's 1993 novel of the same time, about a research psychologist who uses a device that permits therapists to help patients by entering their dreams. It is Kon's fourth and final feature film before his death in 2010. The significant philosophical claim advanced in the movie Paprika is that any consciousness can live as an existence inside dream and reality with or without noticing. Dream is another world with freedom, people tend to show their deepest desire and wishes there. Therefore, dreams can be powerful. Desire, as a thought, can also be alive. Thus, a dark desire can be alive as an evil form, a justice war of dreams starts. This is the journey that all the characters in the movie have been through, to pursue the most real oneself, and ultimately it is the lesson that the movie conveys to its audience.

In anime film world, the moon is often used as a metaphor for Satonshi Kon. Thinking process is the feature of his twisted work which matches the cold society. However, you can always get that last hope from his work till the end. It is like the moon, bringing people the perfect time to meditate. Movie starts with the circus scene. Flashing light with excited audience in the seats, detective  Konakawa Toshimi (use as Kon below) experiences a series of unbelievable weird things with a red hair lady. Suddenly, he wakes up. It was just a dream. The red hair lady smiles next to him. The opening of story begins with the confusing mystery. In the near future, in order to treat more and more modern human beings, more and more serious mental illness, the Institute of Psychiatry in Tokyo has developed a machine that can reflect the dreams of others. The red hair lady is the avatar of Dr. Atsuko Chiba (use as Chiba below) who is the one of concept founders of the dream machine - DCmini. Back to the storyline, Chiba and her partner (close friend) engineer Tokita (use as Toki) found out DCmini is stole from the hospital. Patients and even doctors are getting crazy one by one after the stealing case. They are hurting themselves and others blindly with the excited twisted facial expression.

In order to stop more victims, Chiba and Toki with their team started more investigation to catch the “murderer” behind the scenes. The main character Kon is invited in the team, in the meantime, his personal “date” (which is actually the mental treatment）with the red lady - Paprika is still going on only through the computer. Because typically, Paprika can only exist in the dreamland. Talking about this point of the story, I always find that it is very interesting to compare the dream world with the computational system, which I mean the website itself  through the screen. They are both existing in the “unreal” world, they are both untouchable and they are both addicting. What’s the deeper thoughts behind this comparison?

More victims get involved in the case. The assistant of Toki escaped with one of the DCmini, his condition is getting out of control. The only way of saving him is going inside his dream. This is the moment of inviting Paprika - Dr.Chiba’s avatar of the dream. When Paprika arrived inside his dream, she found out the dream is full of deepest desire, overwhelming fear and twisted forms. She is surrounding by the physical forms of some kind of twisted metal world. The patient himself already turned inside his own desire. In other words, the deepest desire takes control of his physical body and mental mind. He is his desire, his body is his fear.

With this kind of horror fantasy atmosphere, the team successfully found the missing assistant. However, the DCmini is already melted inside his head and they have to take it out with a serious surgery.

Things are getting seriously dangerous. When they found out the assistant is also a victim, they realized that the big boss is actually more powerful than they thought. Back to the main character, also the clue character - detective Kon, he continued his regular dream treatment session with Paprika. Because of a homicide case, he is still struggling with his weird dream. He has a recurring dream of being trapped in a cage at the circus, surrounded by people with his own face. He also dreams that he is trapped in a elevator where each floor is a different movie scenario starring himself and Paprika, and the number 17 seems to repeat itself.  

Without even noticing, detective Kon mixes his personal experience and memory inside his dreamland. It is a perfect example of the core of this movie. Dream, as a powerful media, is sucking every thoughts, memory and experience of us. And reflect them inside our dream world while our bodies are keeping the most relaxing mode. Any thoughts of human being can become a physical form living inside the dreams. For those forms that we may never figure out, dream is their warm cozy blanket. Without rules and limitation, desire can grow faster as overwhelming virus without control. That’s also why dream can be also so attractive to human being through the long history. Similar theory was mentioned in monster theories, people feel scared and curious at the same time while they are talking about monsters. So, do human being want to experience what does it feel to become a monster? Without any consequence, maybe dreamland is a better place to release our dark side?

During the metal treatment with detective Kon, Paprika realizes that someone is intruding on Kon’s dream. All the victim’s dream are merging into detective’s dream.    

That is the point that the movie shocked me. I have never thought about dream can turn any unstable feeling which is without physical shape into a solid physical form. In other word, an evil thought within a second can become powerful and unexpectable. It can’t live inside the real 3D world, but it doesn’t mean it can’t live inside 4D dreamland. Therefore, never get an evil thought go, because it is equal with the actual physical evil action. The only difference is just happening in two different world.

The big boss starts appearing behind everything. It is the chairman of the hospital. He is struggling with his useless legs and envying other’s lives. Thus, he is trying using DCmini to take over the world by hijacking people’s dreams.   

Because of inability, he wants to destroy ability. Such an evil thought turn into a total twisted mess inside dreamland. His assistant became a puppet operating things for him. And the people who are puppets turned into the physical empty nasty skin in their dreams.

Meanwhile, Detective Kon has entered his own dream and is waiting for Paprika. He is drinking at the bar in his dream and two bar men are questioning him about why he doesn’t like movies. He suddenly realizes the significance of the number 17. When he was 17 years old, he made an 8 millimeter film with his close friend and they talked about making more movies together. Kon soon decided that he wasn’t going to pursue film, and his friend felt let down by him. His friend turned out to be terminally ill and died soon after. The detective realizes he has been carrying around the guilt for letting his friend down all these years. The story finally solves the confusing issue which happened at the beginning of the movie. The reason that why he is scared of number 17 and why he is always trapped inside his own dream. I have to say this hidden clue is very deep, even can be considered as the main story clue all through the movie. As I mentioned at the start, dream is an avatar of the real world. It always brings back the deepest desire or the weakest part of us without even noticing. It is almost part of human’s mental function. We experience in day time and release them at night time inside dream, day after day, the strongest and deepest desire or memory stays and grows as the power king inside our dreamland. Detective Kon himself even didn’t realize that why he is scared of that piece of memory. Because inside the dream, the avatar is trying to figure out ourselves. Human, us, probably don’t even know enough about the deepest thoughts and characters of ourselves.        

Story goes to the top of the mountain here. Also, another cultural frame is invited with us - The superhero theory. In superhero theory, they are not born as the superhero. Almost all of them has superhero theory. In superhero theory, they are not born as the superhero. Almost all of them has uperhero tend to “wake up” at the right moment and gather the power and save the world. It is a process of life, a process of learning forgiveness. When they let the certain part of themselves go, the guilt and struggling go with it. Only when Kon really lets himselves face to the memory he avoids, he can re-see himself and save the world. 

Kon “wakes up” and decides to save Paprika who is trapped by the big boss - Chairman. At the same time, the dream world is becoming darker and a giant black hole is appearing connected to the other world. The Chairman, now a haunting black figure towering above the city and spreading the darkness into world pronounces that he can control dreams, even death - he has become the Lord of Darkness.

Paprika realizes that the light and dark reflect reality and dreams. She projects herself as the image of a small child who is swallowing up the darkness and simultaneously growing into a woman at the same time untill she is powerful enough to swallow up the shadowy figure of the Chairman.  

Light returns to the city. Detective Kon doesn’t need metal treatment session anymore, Paprika is also saying goodbye. Detective Kon, free from his previous fears and anxieties, walks out of his office and over to the movie theatre. In the mirror of the street, his old friend is smiling to him. “It’s all over, the dreamland comes from the reality, cherish it.”  Indeed, but who knows, maybe the things happened are real, maybe, they are all just hiding again inside our dreamland and waiting for exploration.

To memorize Satoshi Kon,  the master of dreamland.

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Next 10 years - TED talk

If we imagine our future life based on Professor Conti’s ideas, human being probably will start freeing our hands and passing the repeatable job to the robots we designed. We probably will witness this significant improvement and become the first generation of Augmented Age.

Professor Conti mentioned that we are at the dawn of a new age in human history. Indeed, within 10 to 20 years, our life and our dream will keep growing as a even faster speed with tons of creativity and imagination. As a visual artist, I probably will notice changing from my daily drawing tool. I can talk to computer to explain my design ideas and the computer will make a critic of my thought based on its research. Then we start designing together. I do the mind part, he or she (computer) does the detail drawing part. We will be a perfect team. After all the steps, I can just tell he or she, “Great! We made it! Let’s print it out.”  Then the work is printed out automatically. And don’t forget to touch your computer or high-five with him or her, because of their huge help. So, as you see, computational system and robots will really become a partner in the future instead of being just a tool. In design world or even in other industries, partnership between human, computational system and nature will be the main pattern. And most importantly, I am sure that us, as human being will enjoy that moment very much, as long as keeping a stable and well-designed rule between our relationship with robots. Besides, Augmented Age will also influence medical industry, manufacture and high-tech space text and etc. We will start the process of resting our hands and flying our mind as far as possible with the help of computational system. More disabled people will be excited because with the help of Augmented Age they finally can do as much things as possible living like a normal person.

As a human being who is connected to technology, nature and human, I will feel different but with a lucky difference. In the past 2000 years, no human being was as lucky as us can witness the arrival of Augmented Age. We are sitting in the front seats of the human history movie theatre. How wonderful that is! I will feel much closer to the nature too. Because Augmented Age is more like a mind set, a new methodology that bond us together. More technology improvement doesn’t mean abandoning the nature, instead, we are even closer because we are a team. A team can’t live without any of the members. Therefore, in my opinion, I believe that Augmented Age is actually an age of respecting and loving.

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Thesis_Statement of Final Paper #movie_Paprike(2006)

The significant philosophical claim advanced in the movie Paprika is that any consciousness can live as an existence inside dream and reality with or without noticing. Dream is another world with freedom, people tend to show their deepest desire and wishes there. Therefore, dreams can be powerful. Desire, as a thought, can also be alive. Thus, a dark desire can be alive as an evil form, a justice war of dreams starts. This is the journey that all the characters in the movie have been through, to pursue the most real oneself, and ultimately it is the lesson that the movie conveys to its audience.

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#Blog Assignment - Blade Runner 1982

         Blade Runner (1982), it’s based on Philip K. Dick’s novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep”. Blade Runner, rising director Ridley Scott’s follow-up to his hit Alien (1979), is one of the most popular and influential science-fiction films of all time. 

          The main character is a bounty hunter who is reluctantly dispatched by the state to search for four android replicants (robotic NEXUS models) that have been created with limited life spans (a built-in fail-safe mechanism in case they became too human). Talking about “too human”, what’s that really mean? In which stage that we consider being “too human”? And in which stage that we consider being “too machine”? From the article You are cyborg, “These science fiction fevered dreams stem from our deepest concerns about science, technology, and society. With advances in medicine, robotics, and AI, they're moving inexorably closer to reality.”  With the fast-speed technology, we are concerned about that maybe we won’t tell the difference between human and “machine human”. “When technology works on the body, our horror always mingles with intense fascination.” When we see the machine being designed by human and being more emotional and intelligent, we are fascinated and also scared. We can’t really tell who will replace whom some day in the future. 

          One good example of explaining the “being too human” process is the climax of Blade Runner. In Roy’s death scene, Roy unexpectedly shows mercy towards Deckard, sparing his life even though Deckard was just trying to kill him. When Roy dies, remembering the amazing things he's seen in his life, he recognizes the full value of human life—his and Deckard's. He dies holding that value supreme, while poignantly considering his own mortality: "All those... moments will be lost in time, like tears... in rain." At that moment, both Deckard and the audience can feel something is different inside Roy, he is not just a computer program. Even Roy and the other replicants said “We are physical.” Maybe they can truly feel love and hate, memories and hope. Witnessing Roy's death changes Deckard, who acts as an enlightened witness. It transforms Deckard from being a blade runner to being the guy who runs away with a replicant to try to live a life of peace. 

           Story seems like coming to the end at this point. However, the ending is also the shiny part in this movie. "It's too bad she won't live. But then again who does?" What that means? And that origami unicorn Gaff left behind? That was a sign that he'd visited the apartment and decided not to kill Rachael. Some people think that Deckard is a replicant. In the movie version, we just see Deckard and Rachael get into the elevator. We don't know if they'll even get out of L.A. alive, and no voiceover cheerily informs us that Rachael has a special, lengthened lifespan. The "Final Cut" and "Director's Cut" end on an uncertain and ambiguous note. In fact, if Deckard is a replicant, then it may very well be that his lifespan is just about up, too. As we see here, no one really knows what’s the really fate that waiting for them. But the human-like emotion inside them truly make me feel closer to them. The hybrid of man and machine, are they “too human” or “too machine”? Or us, the modern human being live right now are facing to different kinds of machine every day, are we hybrid too? Are we even realize that? Or we just choose to ignore our real identity? 

(movie background research from shmoop site; filmsite and wired)

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#Blog Assignment -  The Matrix

        Always a BIG fan of The Matrix series.

        The mixture of believing and questioning emotion is the best storyline surrounding by high-end technology environment. The Matrix is the beginning of the series and it is the beautiful start of this wonderland.

        “This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.”

          This quote would be one of the most famous quotes from The Matrix. It is about a choice. A choice of belief, a choice of fate or you can say a choice of which life you want to live in. Based on the storyline, Morpheus offers two options to Neo. Go back whatever the old life that Neo lives in or keep digging the truth. The old life in the movie is actually a dream, a fantasy with those mind borders and rules. The truth which Neo is looking for is the opposite, everything is possible there without borders. I am amazed by the line “ I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.” Morpheus describes the beginning of truth as the rabbit-hole in Alice’s wonderland, Neo is the Alice in this story. The whole Matrix is the whole giant simulation wonderland. “There is no turning back.” After knowing the truth, Neo can never go back to his old life just pretend nothing happened. It is time to make the decision, leave or stay, pretend living in lie or fight for the truth. The dark glasses that Morpheus shows the two different color of pills as the visual choices inside the movie.(which is so classic and I personally love it!)  

           When Morpheus said “You take the blue pill - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe.” By saying that, it means there is a big chance that Neo will still remember the conversation between himself and Morpheus. However, in this version of story, Neo probably can choose to erase it and lie to himself it was all just a meaningless dream. But ironically, the old life itself is the dream, the fantasy, the utopia that has no life pressure. Happily, Neo has this unspeakable feeling of his belief to be himself and did the right decision. ( or some people believe in staying in the lie, which is still a open topic to discuss.)

            A 1999 movie can be this powerful to influence and inspire people. During the time I was enjoying the movie, I found out myself connecting the concept inside The Matrix with the movie - Inception. They are similar but also different at the same time. People can make phone calls through different layers of space inside both of the movies but the media is different. Personally opinion, I would say Inception is more about the past feeling that bother people till their future life; but The Matrix is more about choices and belief. If Neo doesn’t believe him is The One, he will never make it in the mission. It is the belief inside Neo to lead himself to Morpheus, to win the game and to get the love he deserves. 

           All of these is just the beginning, the opening of the real world, the adventure of defining yourself. I am ready, to take the red pill.      

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#Blog Assignment - Black Mirror

physical reality

Everything starts from his house. The main character Cooper(American) had a beautiful family when he was a kid.(we can know that from the wall pictures) However, his father passed away later when he grows up. He lives with his mother in the house, the life can never be the same as before. His mother is always wondering in her old memory, she always over-protects her only son - the main character. Surrounding by this kind of environment, the main character decided to escape into a “finding himself” journey without telling his mother. Using his own words “Really to get away from the family home is what I’m doing” He went to Europe and finished the whole Europe trip, during the last week of trip, he met a girl from a dating mobile app. They hooked up with some interesting conversations and end up living together for a week at the girl’s(Sonja) place. Things get weird slowly from here. During the whole trip, his mother called him many times and he never answered it. Till the time to go back home, he realized something wrong with his credit card. With the “help” from the girl Sonja, he signed up to test a revolutionary new gaming system, only to discover the thrills are a little too real. But it is too late. 

In the deep of his mind, he wants to talk to his mother but he doesn’t even know how to start the conversation. Because of the loss of his father last year, he lost hope to start his normal life. The family is his hidden pain, also is the reason why he went on the trip.

augmented reality

During the game test,(big creepy house) Cooper found out the creepy guy with the black hat is the simulation of Josh peters(his high school bully, he were scared of him). The gaming assistant Katie explained that the system could be mining some of your personal memories for texture. Then the system overlaps his fear of the high school bully and exaggerates it as large as possible. The mess up “Josh Peters face spider” and etc. The physical reality is enlarged and transformed inside simulation. The girl Sonja later showed up in the house. This time the game character is over the 3D characters, it is augmented reality with the same touch feeling as the real human. Also, his fear of getting away from mom secretly is enlarged. His guilty took control of his mind and started mental torturing him. 

hyper reality

Near the end of the game testing, things are getting out of control. Cooper’s deepest fear totally took over his mind and started messing with him mentally. Cooper couldn’t take it anymore and started using pieces of glass to cut the power off on his neck. The assistant Katie appeared but Cooper couldn’t tell if she is real or not. Everything seems like real but not real at the same time. At the last, when we assume Cooper finished the test and went home, we found out Cooper’s mom went crazy because of missing Cooper too much. While Cooper’s mom is making the phone call, we realized that on the other side, cooper actually died. The reality is not the physical reality anymore, it is mix with the hyper reality. All the stories happened within 0.03 second, the Cooper we saw is actually the hyper reality one, the physical reality Cooper is already dead because of cellphone interruption. At the end, we found out the big gaming company actually did this secretly on the poor travelers as the lab little rats. 

cognition

These layers overlap on each other and affect each other as an union. The augmented reality emphasizes the physical reality to delivery the message. The hyper reality to confuse the audience to bring the concept (mainly physical reality with mixture augmented reality) to a different new level. Three layers work perfectly together to make the whole show more meaningful and exciting.

character & audience

These layers affect both the characters and the audience. Three layers make the character more real and closer to us as a normal daily life person. Their deepest fear and emotion are real and very similar to us. For us, three layers also tell us even a small fear from long time ago can be scary, even it was a small piece of our old memory. It also teach us that sometimes we shouldn’t let the fear take control of our mind. If it is time to let the fear go, then just do it. The relief and the forgiveness will cure us the best.  

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#Blog Assignment -Monster/Monstrous Assignment  2

        After the reading of Monster Culture by J.J. Cohen, I would like to use seven thesis from the reading as my framework to analyze Lil Wayne (current popular hip-hop singer) based on performance, appearance and influence.

       (Background research from churchleaders website) His parents named him Michael Dewayne Carter, Jr., but his self-appointed moniker is Lil Wayne. He’s probably the most recognized persona in hip-hop music these days, even though he just spent the last 8 months serving a sentence for weapon possession. In fact, on his website page, he declares himself “the best rapper alive today.”

       At the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards, he captured Best Hip Video, and at the Grammys, he took home Best Rap Album for “Lollipop,” the words he used are superficial and low-educated:

Man, she ain’t never had a love like mine And man, I ain’t never seen an a– like hers And that p—y in my mouth had me loss for words Told her back it up like erp erp And I made that a– jump like jerk, jerk And that’s when she lick me like a lollipop (oh, yeah, I like that) she lick me like a lollipop (I like that) she lick me like a lollipop (I like that) she lick me like a lollipop

      Surprisingly, a lot of people enjoy his music and he started to become an international rapper. It fits the sixth thesis - Fear of monster really a sort of desire. Teenagers follow his fashion style and even “talking style” to be “cool”, his followers pull the jeans low on purpose to be closer to him as their rap hero. For them, Lil Wayne is the “monster” who is famous with all those rebellious feathers they are looking for. The sex desire, the free-style dressing style, the materialism style and even the curious desire to drugs and alcohol. The fear became desire, “the things they were told not to do before” became “the things they are encouraged to do now”. When the up is down, the down is up, people especially teenagers get excited, from there, they are in the monster game.

      Lil Wayne enjoys tattoo so much as his life mission. His tattoo is all over his body and people divide them into different meanings. 

The words 'I Am Music' above his right eye.

He has the neck tattoos 'Weezy' and 'W' which are his own nickname.

The words 'Baby' and 'Slim' on the respective shoulders. These are the names of the people who got him into the rap industry.

'Fear of God' is a cross tattoo on his eyelids.

The famous 3 dots mean 'Laugh, Think and Cry'.

'Lucky Me' under the left ear with a flower.

The logo of 'ESPN' is on the backside of his left arm. ESPN stands for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, an American cable company that airs sport-related programs 24 hours a day.

On his left hand 'Steel', on his right hand 'Concrete'.

'A Gun' and 'The World' is written on his palms.

        From his appearance, it is evident that his tattoo choices are random and superficial. However, it does fits the first thesis - The monster’s body is a cultural body. The appearance of Lil Wayne is not an accident, this mixture rebellious pop culture chose him. Hip-hop music is going down the hill around these years, a lot of rapper chose to copying the old time rap style to keep their popular selling record. Lil Wayne is one of them. By showing off stupid tattoo, weird stage style and rebellious attitude, Lil Wayne caught teenager’s attention and use that as his golden bowl to survive in music industry. This era gave him the chance to be a monster, a popular monster.

        Lil Wayne created a big influence on teenagers, I would say mostly negative parts. The February 3, 2011, issue of Rolling Stone reported that Lil Wayne stayed quite busy behind bars. For starters, Lil Wayne’s musical posse visited him in jail, with the exception of fellow rapper T.I., as that would be a violation of his own parole stemming from illegal possession of machine guns  and silencers. He spent the last days of his sentence in the mentally taxing space called “the box.” It was from that tiny, isolated cell that Lil Wayne emerged on November 4, 2010, a free man. (Research from churchleaders website) 

        Lil Wayne, a rebellious but stereotyped rapper. Can we describe him as a pretending monster? Or he just one of us who has the desire to be “special”? If he is a contemporary monster, then are his fans monster too? Or Lil Wayne is just a monster that his followers wish to become some day.    

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#Blog Assignment - Monster/Monstrous Assignment

       We live in a time of monsters. Monsters provide a key to understanding the culture that spawned them. Viewing the monstrous body as a metaphor for the cultural body, the contributors to Monster Theory consider beasts, demons, freaks, and fiends as symbolic expressions of cultural unease that pervade a society and shape its collective behavior. The author argues that our fascination for the monstrous testifies to our continued growing desire to explore difference and prohibition.

        Thesis I: The monster’s body is a cultural body

        “The monster is born only at this metaphoric crossroads, as an embodiment of a certain cultural moment-of a time, a feeling, and a place. The monster’s body quite literally incorporates fear, desire, anxiety, and fantasy.” Based on author’s theory, the monster is full of human’s feelings, desire and fantasy. Sometimes, people hide those extreme feelings into their fantasy world, into those monsters figures. So, people feel relief from their scary thoughts which are added inside the monster body. “..the monster signifies something other than itself: it is always a displacement, always inhabits the gap between the time of upheaval that created it and the moment into which it is received, to be born again.” The monster is always the group of unacceptable behavior, it can be both myths or real people. It is a kind of unusual behavior or feather that want attention and forgiveness, it is also a process of reborn.

        Thesis II: The monster always escapes

        “..from ancient Egypt to modern Hollywood, each reappearance and its analysis is still bound in a double act of construction and reconstitution.” The appearance of monster and the disappearance of monster both reflect the matter of culture change inside a civilization. “..by the impossibility of achieving what Susan Stewart calls the desired ‘fall or death, the stopping’” The fact of monster’s disappearance always leave the blank space to people’s imagination world. In that world, anything is possible, the breaking rules feelings and the freedom to be a monster.

        Thesis III: The monster is the harbinger of category crisis

        “The monster always escapes because it refuses easy categorization.” Quick, easy judgement is always not a smart thing to start. Being different or strange doesn’t mean being like a monster, quick judgement is the harbinger of class and category crisis. People easily freak out about unusual behavior because they have never experienced those things and not willing to listen. 

        Thesis IV: The monster dwells at the gates of difference

        “..the monster is an incorporation of the outside, the beyond-of all those loci that are rhetorically placed as distant and distinct but originate Within.” “the monstrous body, but for the most part monstrous difference tends to be cultural, political, racial, economic, sexual.” People see the different “monstrous” looking outside the form, however, it is full of the different communication styles of the same object with cultural, political, racial.etc difference. People exaggerate the difference of culture into monsters, because they are most different from us. “Political or ideological difference is as much a catalyst to monstrous representation on a micro level as cultural alterity in the macrocosm.” The difference of the methodology leads to a different cultural level to observe the whole ‘monster” thing.

        Thesis V: The monster polices the borders of the possible

        No one is as much as different as the monster. “..the monster stands as a warning against exploration of its uncertain demesnes.” “To step outside this official geography is to risk attack by some monstrous border patrol or (worse) to become monstrous oneself.” The monster is like the dangerous border of the top mountain, beyond that, it is way leading to monster world. “Every monster is in this way a double narrative, two living stories: one that describes how the monster came to be and another, its testimony, detailing what cultural use the monster serves.” 

        Thesis VI: Fear of the monster is really a kind of desire

        This thesis is my favorite one and also the one which blows my mind. “The monster is continually linked to forbidden practices, in order to normalize and to enforce.” The forbidden behavior is linked to unlimited desire, people tend to chase the objects/things what they cannot get. “We distrust and loathe the monster at the same time we envy its freedom, and perhaps its sublime despair.” “Through the body of the monster fantasies of aggression, domination, and inversion are allowed safe expression in a clearly delimited and permanently liminal space.” Darkness always attracts human being, it is the combination of freedom and desire, the rebelliousness. 

        Thesis VII: The monster stands at the threshold.. of becoming

        “Monsters are our children. They can be pushed to the farthest margins of geography and discourse, hidden away at the edges of the world and in the forbidden recesses of our mind, but they always return.” Darkness is the place we fantasy. People push their desire and anger to the border of their mind and leave them there, once in a while, they try to fly back but we push them back again. The monsters questions us why we created them but leave them alone. The darkness is inside human, it is the product from us. We are trying to make us look cleaner and more innocent, so we lock “monster children” to the blank space - darkness. In a nutshell, the monsters is the remix of all civilization, culture, desire and history of human being.  

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# Blog Assignment 4      Text Without Context By Michiko Kakutani

         1.  Artist and computer scientist Jaron Lanier means that this digital web world encourages authors, journalists, musicians and artists to get inspiration from each other and treat them as the elements of hive. So they can build their own artwork by using these hive pieces. By saying that, apparently, Jaron Lanier agrees with borrowing inspiration ideas between artists. He disagrees with copyright idea, “reality cannot be copyrighted.”.

         2.  According to Mr. Lanier and others, “You Are Not a Gadget,” of how online collectivism, social networking and popular software designs are changing the way people think and process information, a question of what becomes of originality and imagination in a world that prizes “metaness” and regards the mash-up as “more important than the sources who were mashed.”  “Increased Internet use is rewiring our brains, impairing our ability to think deeply and creatively even as it improves our ability to multitask.” Those ways reshape our ways of communication. Personally, I do agree with that our ways of communication are changed by the increased Internet. The way we seek information jumps from the traditional paper to the Internet, including e-book and web blogs. This digital world really reshape the way human live and communicate.

          3.   “At the same time it’s clear that technology and the mechanisms of the Web have been accelerating certain trends already percolating through our culture — including the blurring of news and entertainment, a growing polarization in national politics, a deconstructionist view of literature (which emphasizes a critic’s or reader’s interpretation of a text, rather than the text’s actual content)” Web-induced changes did influence our thought and culture in a worldwide way. 

         4.     The splinternet (also referred to as cyberbalkanization or Internet Balkanization) is a characterization of the Internet as splintering and dividing due to various factors, such as technology, commerce, politics, nationalism, religion, and interests. It can be very dangerous due to the dangerous context itself. For instance, many countries build Internet Firewall to stop child pornography context websites. The implication for the establishment of truth is significant, due to the safety of people, the respect of different culture etc. Only if we all have this common ground of truth, we can protect our friendly environment of Internet to keep the nastiness out.

         5.     As a deconstructionist, they believe in the freedom of structure, in other words, they believe in structure unstableness. When it comes to literature and other texts, they believe that literature has no certain meaning which lasts forever. They feel free to inspire from it or even change it, because of the literature unstableness. 

         6.    “Celebrity, Mr. Gabler argues, ‘competes with — and often supersedes — more traditional entertainments like movies, books, plays and TV shows,” and it performs, he says, “in its own roundabout way, many of the functions those old media performed in their heyday: among them, distracting us, sensitizing us to the human condition, and creating a fund of common experience around which we can form a national community.’”  The author of this article - Michiko Kakutani thinks that it is impossible to say some of the celebrities are the art forms of 21 century, due to their low quality of moral standard or performance level. “At the same time our cultural landscape is brimming over with parodies, homages, variations, pastiches, collages and others forms of “appropriation art” — much of it facilitated by new technology that makes remixing, and cutting-and-pasting easy enough for a child.”

         7.   “All too often, however, the recycling and cut-and-paste esthetic has resulted in tired imitations; cheap, lazy re-dos; or works of “appropriation” designed to generate controversy like Mr. Shields’s “Reality Hunger.” Lady Gaga is third-generation Madonna; many jukebox or tribute musicals like “Good Vibrations” and “The Times They Are A-Changin’ ” do an embarrassing disservice to the artists who inspired them; and the rote remaking of old television shows into films (from “The Brady Bunch” to “Charlie’s Angels” to “Get Smart”), not to mention the recycling of video games into movies (like “Tomb Raider” and “Resident Evil”) often seem as pointless as they are now predictable.” Ms. Kakutani assess the various remixes in culture as a bit cheap and predictable. A lot of “cutting and coping” happened and make the whole art a bit pointless. The recycling is resulted in tiring imitations. 

         8.   By saying that, Mr. Lanier means that the latest web invention actually change so fast that it keeps eating its old version. Thinking like a snake eats its own old skin, it’s like a growing circle of life. Since now the web kills the old traditional media like books, newspaper and magazine. There is no competitor left, so it starts to eat the old version of itself to come up a new version. It will be a recycling circle of imitations and re-dos.   

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＃Blog Assignment 2   Through the lens of postmodernism

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iRUOzn7Xg0     and    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yhan8a0AqD4     These two commercials are both advertising for Fanta Orange juice drink in the early 90s. Their slogan is “Orange thing you make my mouth sing.” In my opinion, both of them belong to the postmodernism category, just with the slightly different storytelling skills.

          In the first commercial video (1992), the story starts with a bunch of teenagers in an orange telephone box. There is a fashionable orange car stops next to the orange telephone box. One of the teenagers inside the telephone box pours the Fanta orange juice into the driver’s mouth. The background is filling with the happy pop music. The the picture goes to different places of groups of teenagers, they are dancing, singing and having fun in different fashion styles. They are running with smiles on the face and their orange balloons on the background. They uses the creative typography editing which influenced by the 60s in the video, the type is “dancing” around the dancer in the circle. Then the picture goes to a teenager couple sitting on the edge of the stage, drinking Fanta and sharing the happy moments with each other. After that, a teenager girl dances on the table full of her friends with Fanta orange. Girls and boys are jumping into the swimming pool, watching black and white movies in their colorful fashion clothes. Teenager girls are exercising with the hot tight black uniforms, teenager boys are dancing in hip-hop street dance style back in the 70s, 80s. At this moment, the typography playing comes again and interacting with the characters in the video. At the end, the camera goes back to the start scene - the fashionable orange car. The driver finished Fanta drink and smiles to the camera then drives away on the bridge. Finally, a woman comes out behind the car and she tastes the Fanta orange drink with a big satisfying smile on her face. 

         The whole commercial uses the happy pop music as the background and almost every subject is in orange color. These media texts communicates with us about the young people culture values - youth, energy, love and a bit rebelliousness. The clothes style is chilling and characterful based on different personalities. The lighting is bright and colorful, with this unknown sweet taste. The usage of hip-hop street dance is repeated in the video, which represents the freedom that teenagers are looking for. The whole set up matches with the brand value - Fanta youth culture. 

          The second commercial is also from the early 90s. The video starts with four Disney characters (Mickey mouse with his friends) walking to the teenager club on this smooth road with big orange dots. They open the door and everyone inside is smiling and welcoming their arrival. Teenagers are dancing with them and playing some new style pop music as the background. They put their heads behind those screen and the comic style of their head shows up on the screen. The Disney characters are interacting with them the whole time.  It becomes a huge happy party with laughter. Everyone in the party are drinking Fanta orange drink and chatting, the whole club generates the huge orange bubbles to the sky. 

           The whole video also uses the same strategy as the first one, with the pop music background and orange color subjects. The difference is that it puts the comic characters out from the 20s to 90s. This change brings back the happy memory of the teenagers and children at that era. The usage of the comic drawing style art form represents the era (1928) that Mickey mouse and his friends were created. All the interaction is also important, because it shows the bond between teenagers and those classical Disney characters. The hidden message is that  Disney characters are not just for children, they are also sharing the teen culture.  It mixes the styles from different eras and produces this video as a mixture youth culture. It perfectly matches the party culture that teenagers have, they just cannot say no to this happy energetic product. It is not just a brand anymore, it became part of the teenager culture and their lifestyle. Or we can say, it is an approve of the teens’ philosophy of life. 

            In a nutshell, both of the Fanta commercial show the usage of postmodernism styles. By borrowing the culture icon from the past and mixing the time periods together, Fanta attracts a lot of loyal teenager consumers. And their commercial is always famous for its energetic and freedom lifestyle which is the main part of the teen’s culture. 

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#Blog Assignment 1  You Say You Want a Devolution, Kurt Anderson

        I wholeheartedly agree with the article’s opinion, but with a slight personal adjustment. As the article mentioned, “People have a limited capacity to embrace flux and strangeness and dissatisfaction, and right now we’re maxed out.” True, the era we are in right now is occupied with tons of new technologies and political economy but old styles and innovation. We are like full-charged iPhone - maxed out, both in outside world style changing and inside world self-exploration.

       People are surrounding by an extremely colorful outside world right now. More than any of the era in the past. This “colorful” doesn’t mean our new changes but the noisy disturbance. On technology side, for instance, students google their homework instead of looking for reference in library. Technology shortcut replaces our mind processing. On Political economy side, for example, changeable economy market makes innovation looks risky, people tend to play safe in the business world. Therefore, it is not surprising that humanity innovation is in stagnation.

       On the equal side of outside world, humanity in this era also stays the same in their inside world. Increasing number of people feel lonely and empty, short-temper and dishonest are everywhere in the air. The lack of inside security causes the lack of outside innovation. For instance, more people feel insecure today than any of the era in the past. They start to rely their emotion and hope on social medias, which can temporarily release their stress. Innovation and success require a huge amount of independence and self-control. Therefore, less real innovation can be generated today.

        On the other hand, any phenomenon has its double sides. From my personal perspective, I believe that we, humanity will make it through in a totally different way compared with the past eras. As the article mentioned “tens of millions of Americans, the uncool as well as the supercool, have become amateur stylists”, coolness is discussed on the table again. It means people still care about the style, the feather of culture, but having a hard time to find it. It reminds me one of my professor’s funny words in class one time. He said, “If you are not cool, buying an iPhone 7 won’t make you cooler.” True, people especially young people rush into this “fashion culture” movement to discover the definition of coolness which being used by business industry. Maybe it is the perfect time for people to self-explore theirselves. Without the chaos, it is harder for people to know who they really are, what they can really do. For instance, gay (lesbian&bisexual) movement in this era rescues more than 8 million adults in the US. Who can really deny this era did actually contribute its new culture in its own way?

       From a historical growth perspective, the stagnation of American innovation culture today may not be a negative thing. Any country goes through the similar history step, they might look totally different but share the same philosophy. America has always been the strongest country globally, it is hard to always create innovation every step. For example, it is like a talent student always get A+ in class, once in a while, A- or even B+ is a normal situation. Same thing, America is going through the bottleneck right now, it might look like a total stagnation but actually a preparation. For other countries, they have been through the same steps but just slower than the US. For instance, China is making a significant process in its history, only because it starts catching up late. People may have a surface image that China is growing fast but America slows its steps. However, they are just in different process. So, stagnation doesn’t always mean that we are doing nothing new here but sometimes a solid preparation rest time.

       There is an old saying in China, “Haste makes waste.” Sometimes, the surface picture covers the opposite intrinsic factor.