Week 6

Week 6

What are the underlying thematics of Princess Mononoke?

Love and violence is the eternal theme of Japanese films. Miyazaki’s film is no exception. Princess Mononoke was released in 1997; it is a very representative anime of Miyazaki. In Princess Mononoke, we can find the theme of love and violence. However, the love and violence in Princess Mononoke shows the deeply setting of thought. The main story of Princess Mononoke is about the fight between human being and animals. The contradiction between human and nature is the main clue of the whole story. The wanton exploitation of human being brings serious harm to the forest. They destroyed the ecological balance, and bring the irreparable damage to each other. Except human and nature, another contradiction is between survival and death. The leader of the Iron Town, Lady Eboshi, she destroys the forest in order to protect her people and build a good town. Actually, she did that for the survival of her people. However, and the same time, the animal and plant in the forest has died.
Another point of this film is the revenge of the animal and forest. The film saying human destroy the nature and the nature will fight back.

According to Napier, how does this anime problematise traditional (or conservative) constructions of gender, class and race?

In this film, there is just one main male character, Ashitaka. No doubt, he is a hero in this film. However, as Napier (2005) cited, “there are three important female characters in the film: Eboshi, the leader of Tatara; San, the human girl who has joined wild nature; and Moro, San’s adoptive wolf mother.” (p. 238). These female characters make the film more successful. As Napier (2005) identified cuteness is an important part of contemporary Japanese culture. Therefore, Miyazaki created female characters to show brave and violence, it makes these three characters more remarkable.

Ashitaka is Emilshi prince actually. A different race to Eboshi, however he still helps them. The revenge of the nature is regardless of race.

Reference

Napier, S. (2005). Anime: from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.

Week 9

1. The details of Assessment 2 are now available. This is due on Friday week 14. For this assessment you can choose to write either a short work of fanfic and an accompying commentary, or choose one of the essay questions.

Note: If you choose the essay, try and maintain the same writing style as the blogs. In the past, many students on hearing the word 'essay', returned to writing in a secondary school type of essay prose (terrible). For most of you, your blogs are actually more academic and closer to a good literary type of scholarship.

2. There is a Thurs screening this week of two Buffy programmes - this is compulsory as usual and I will be taking a register of attendence. Again, this week the room will be WE230 (click here for a map) and the screening will start at 12.10 - don't be late.

Week Eight

Week 8
How does Dick's essay (1999; 1964), illuminate his use of Nazism as a motif in High Castle?

According to dick (1995) The man in the High Castle illuminates Nazism by highlighting how fear is sub rational eg (p. 113, line. 12) in which Dick (1995) states "It is sub rational; it is psychological, not logical. Dick (1995) puts forward puts forward the questions why do some people fear cats or street cars or red headed goats as irrational examples however i am not so sure phobias no matter how strong, can be viewed on the same irrational level as the atrocities of the Nazis. While phobias are perhaps misunderstood until researched at a deeper level they unlike Nazism are not caused by propaganda or brainwashing however one can see how being threatened with the same treatment as the Jewish people would prevent others coming to their defense.
　
According to Mc Knee, what relationship did Dick's ideas have to (a) Christianity, (b) religion and philosophy in general?

According to Mc Knee (2004) p. 29. scholars who viewed the religious themes of Dick's work from a literature point of examination as opposed to studying his works from a religious angle appear to be ignorant about the controversy which goes with the terms they use to categorize Dick's religious thought. Secondly Mc Knee (2004) points out that while Dick often suggested of his own ideas as being Gnostic, a great many of ideas do not follow along the Gnostic ideology within ancient texts of which modern scholarship refer to as Gnostic. Finally Mc knee (2004) informs us that Dick's self designations were forever changing as his theories developed.
　
Based on a reading of Dick (1991; 1964) and Mc Knee (2004), what value did dick place on the ordinary, low and trashy?

Mc Knee (2004) mentions how in numerous interviews Dick mentioned how the act of kindness however small it maybe, is the highest expression when it comes to true humanity; the reason being that it shows a selfless love for our human counterparts. One such act of kindness and compassion mentioned in Dick (1995) is that of the German people who poked bread into the cattle cars which were transporting the Jewish people to the death camps

Week 8

How does Dick’s essay (1995; 1964) illuminate his use of Nazism as a motif in High Castle?

The essay illuminates Dick’s use of Nazism as a motif in The Man in The High Castle by showing how fear that is “subrational; it is psychological, not logical” (Dick, 1995, p. 113) can surface, allowing people to act in ways they would not normally act. As Dick (1995) states, “we do not actually know why, in the deepest sense, they – i.e., the Nazis – did it” (p. 112). Nazism as a motif seems to fall in line with what Brown (2001) calls Dick’s deep interest in such themes as “good and evil, and the abuse of power” (p. vii).

Interestingly, I think the novel shows this irrational fear as turning the Nazis into aggressive conquerors. Or as Baynes states, “they want to be the agents, not the victims, of history” (Dick, 1982; 1962, chapter 3, para. 121). In the novel, the Nazis not only want to conquer more of the earth, but have already conquered the moon and Mars. Throughout the novel the reader is ever reminded of the destructive capabilities of the Nazis, for example, the killing of Africans, “the Nazi experiment there” (Dick, 1982; 1962, Chapter 1, para. 57) and their Aryan superiority (for example, to enslave others, such as the slaves who lived at the San Francisco port). However, “to fight against what one abhors without realizing it lies within is to destroy all” (Warrick as cited in McKee, 2004, p. 36).

This ability to destroy all, this fear which Dick (1995) maintains drove the Nazis and which he considered to be unfathomable, because it wells up “from depths of the self unknown to the self” (p. 113), is presented by Dick in The Man in The High Castle in the most unexpected manner – that of humour. This occurs when the Nazi Freiherr Hugo Reiss contemplates the joke made by Herr Hope: “Mars populated by Jews. We would see them there, too. Even with their two heads apiece, standing one foot high” (Dick, 1982; 1962, chapter 8, para. 96). Another tactic Dick utilizes to present the extreme measures instigated by the Nazis because of this underlying fear, is to compare the victors Japan and Germany. For example, through the fry cook who states, “No Japs killed Jews, in the war or after. No Japs built ovens” (Dick, 1982; 1962, chapter 3, para. 54). Another example is when Tagomi remembers his time in Shanghai where there were Jews incarcerated by the authorities. The Nazis applied for these Jews to be killed. As Tagomi states, “I recall my superiors’ answer. . . . They rejected the request as barbaric” (Dick, 1982: 1962, chapter 5, para. 131).

Another way the essay illuminates Dick’s use of Nazism as a motif is to reflect on the possibility that non-Nazis are similar to Nazis. Dick (1995) cites Warner who he considered “so correctly said, ‘we might identify with the war guilt of the Germans because they’re so similar to us. . . .” (p. 112).

I think an example of the possibility of this similarity is touched upon in the novel when Baynes is talking with the German Lotze on board a rocket ship. When Lotze suggests they are “countrymen” (Dick, 1982; 1962, chapter 3, para. 114) and that Baynes is acceptable to the German because “racially, you’re quite close” (Dick, 1982; 1962, chapter 3, para. 116), this sets Baynes into a spiral of thought as to whether or not he possessed the same “psychotic streak” (Dick, 1982; 1962, chapter 3, para. 117) he believed the Nazis possessed. His line of thinking attempts to understand the Nazis and what they did, while at the same time puts distance between himself and those he considered to be mad.

But perhaps this similarity of Nazis and non-Nazis is shown more profoundly through the unlikely character of Juliana Frink who kills Joe Cinnadella. Just as Cinnadella is prepared to kill Hawthorne Abendsen to protect his ideological beliefs, so Juliana kills Cinnadella “a Gestapo assassin” (Dick, 1982; 1962, chapter 13, para. 99) to protect hers, by keeping the author of The Grasshopper Lies Heavy alive. However, it is through Cinnadella that Dick (1982; 1962) puts the case that non-Nazis were just as capable of acts of brutality. “`They talk about the things the Nazis did to the Jews,’ Joe said. ‘The British have done worse. In the Battle of London.’” (Dick, 1982; 1962, chapter 6, para. 54), and he goes on to state his case as to the injuries inflicted on the Germans.

In his article, Dick (1995) states that he was with a Nazi friend and about to enter a building when he mentioned that a person with a Jewish name lived in the building. Dick describes his friend’s reaction which he attributes to an underlying irrational fear towards Jews. I don’t place the same interpretation on his Nazi friend’s behaviour. Remember, this occurred after the war. I think that Dick’s Nazi friend was more likely scared for his own safety and life which may have been taken by a Jew in retribution for what the Nazis had done to the Jews during the war.

According to McKee, what relationship did Dick’s ideas have to (a) Christianity (b) religion and philosophy in general?

Dick’s ideas where drawn from a number of religions and philosophical concepts. Although Dick has labelled his work at times as being Gnostic, his broad array of theories cannot be so easily captured under this one label (McKee, 2004). “As with all of his self designations, they were always temporary, changing as he developed new theories” (McKee, 2004, p. 29).

a) Christianity

Dick stated that he was an Anglo-Catholic (Dick, 1995), and although his religious concepts have been considered heretical at times, McKee (2004) states that he accepted the Christian God and Christ. Even so, his ideas about the Bible being the source of all truth departed from established Christian beliefs (for example, that of St Augustine) in that Dick considered truth (or logos) could be “found scattered throughout the entire history of human language” (McKee, p. 40). However, his views on logos grew nearer to the Christian concept as time passed (McKee).

Dick also had a special interest in St John and St Paul, in particular in the Scriptural passage 1 Corrinthins 13:2, one that re-occurs frequently in his work (McKee, 2004). A future incorporating technology incorporates problems in ethics, but Dick considered the answer could be found in St Paul’s view of love “and much of his science fiction may be read as futurological interpretations of that ideal” (McKee, p. 37).

b) Religion and philosophy in general

Dick also drew ideas from religions other than Christianity, and from philosophy. Examples include Buddhism, Taoism, Hindu Vendanta, pre-Socratic and Platonic philosophy, the Nag Hammadi and the I Ching (McKee, 2004). Dick believed that truth (logos) could be obtained from many different religions or philosophical concepts (McKee). His ideas were constantly changing and according to DiTomasso (as cited by McKee, 2004) theses ideas could alter “even within the context of a single novel” (p. 30).

Taoism, the I Ching and Christianity are incorporated in The Man in The High Castle. As McKee (2004) states, “the novel is deeply rooted in religion and philosophy (p. 26).

Examples include:

• When Tagomi contemplates: “this is not a good day. I should have consulted the oracle, discovered what Moment it is. I have drifted far from the Tao; that is obvious” (Dick, 1982; 1962, chapter 6, para. 238).

• When Childan has dinner with Paul and Betty and he contemplates: “the proportion. Balance. They are so close to the Tao, these two young Japanese” (Dick, 1982; 1962, chapter 7, para. 23). Childan goes on to consider Tao in a more in-depth manner.

This was the part of the book I enjoyed the most, when Childan goes to dinner at the young Japanese couple's accommodation. I thought it was exceptional the way Dick (1982; 1962) presents the different cultures and Childan’s change in attitude towards his hosts. I enjoyed reading Dick's sf rather than viewing the film 'Scanner Darkly'. However, it took me a short time to get used to Dick's style of writing. For example, fractured sentences and the way Dick (1982; 1962) seems to speak to the reader rather than staying in 'story' mode - for example, in Chapter One, paragraph 70, when Frink considers "Will I ever see Juliana again?" and Dick writes in paragraph 71 "That was his wife." . Rather than, for example, 'She was his wife', or 'Juliana who was his wife'. Also, it was interesting to see how Dick incorporated the Nazi element, as this could have easily gone to extremes.

• When Tagomi is forced to kill assassins, General Tedeki thinks Tagomi will regain the ‘balance’ once more through the oracle while Baynes wonders if Tagomi knows of the Doctrine of Original Sin – referring to the Christian religion.

I think this reference to the Original Sin and Baynes’s contemplation of it is not only meant for the reader to align with Tagomi’s killing of the assassins and their murderous intent, but can also be read with reference to the killings performed by the Nazis.

• Examples to references to the Christian Bible include: “When I was a child I thought as a child. But now I have put away childish things” (Dick, 1982; 1962, chapter 14, para. 87) which is an adaption of I Corinthians 13:11; and “What profit it a man if he gain the whole world but in this enterprise lose his soul?” (Dick, 1982; 1962, chapter1, para. 63) which is Luke 9:25.

References

Brown, E. (2001). Introduction. In Dick, P.K., The Man in the High Castle (p. v-vii and x-xii). London: Penguin.

Dick, P.K. (1995). Nazism and the High Castle. In Sutin, L. (ed.). The Shifting Realities of Philip K. Dick (pp. 112-117). New York: Vintage.

Dick, P.K. (1982; 1962). The Man in The High Castle. New York, NY: Berkley Publishing. Retrieved September 1, 2010, from Auckland Technical Institute of Technology Popular Genres Blackboard Online site: https://autonline.aut.ac.nz/webapps/portal/
frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D39673%26url%3D

McKee, G. (2004). A scanner darkly: Dick as a Christian theologian. In Pink Beams of Light from the God in the Gutter: the science-fictional religion of Philip K. Dick. NY: U Press of America.

Week 7

What is the difference in emphasis between the terms science fiction and speculative fiction? Which is The Man in the High Castle?

Speculative fiction, according by Urbanski (2007) and Card (1990), incorporates both science fiction and fantasy categories. Works can be identified as undoubtedly science fiction or fantasy, while yet other works seem to combine elements of both these genres (Urbanski).

In The Man in the High Castle, when Betty, Paul and Childan discuss The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, Betty has the idea that “science fiction deals with the future, in particular future where science has advanced over now” (Dick, 1982; 1962, chapter 7, para. 52). Her husband is quick to add that science fiction also “deals with alternate present” (Dick, 1982; 1962, chapter 7, para. 53). As Brown (2001) states, the alternate world was “a sub-genre of science fiction little explored at the time he [Dick] wrote the novel” (p. xi). The Man in the High Castle is thus a science fiction work that deals with an alternate world: instead of Germany and Japan losing World War II, they win the war.

According to Mountfort (2006), what role does the I Ching have as an organisational device in the structure of High Castle?

The Man in The High Castle has I Ching readings implanted into its text at 10 crucial points which help formulate the structure of the work (Mountfort, 2006). P.K. Dick referred to the device to gain information on how he should develop the work, with the 10 readings showing, according to Mountfort, the “`physical’ seams of the construction of Dick’s novel” (p. 5). The I Ching (a cybertext) centres on the “mechanical organization of the text” (Aarseth, 1997, as cited in Mountfort, 2006, p. 4). Because of the role of the I Ching in creating Dick’s work, the reader can be interested in more than just the story’s meaning, including how “acts of choices” (Mountfort, p. 4) have developed the work.

How does the use of this device illuminate the character of the novel’s protagonists?

When consulting the I Ching, “personal elements of the questioner’s situation and more general storylines contained within the oracle morph and are reconstituted to form a new, individualised narrative” (Mountfort, 2006, p. 4). Taking this into consideration, Dick consulted the I Ching on behalf of his characters, characters that he created. “Every time my people would cast a hexagram, I actually cast it for them and let them proceed on the basis of the advice given” (Dick as cited in McKee, 2004, p. 26). The characters are, therefore, to a larger extent, an extension of the author. If they were real people, they may have asked the oracle different questions, framed the questions he asked on their behalf differently, or even interpreted the answers in different ways, so receiving different ‘individualised narratives’. Therefore, I think the character of the novel’s protagonists is in fact a reflection (an illumination) of the author’s character. He has shaped the novel’s characters' future actions according to his interpretation of the oracle’s messages.

Another means of understanding the character of the novel’s protagonists is to consider why they used the I Ching. Childan, Frink and his wife have had their worlds overturned since the lost of the war to Germany and Japan. Their world is one filled with apprehension and fear. They are “individuals driven to contemplate their powerlessness in light of the ultimate rule of the Third Reich” (Brown, 2001, p. x). Their reliance on the I Ching seems to be out of a need to gain a sense of certainty in an uncertain world in which they seem no longer able to trust their own judgements. Frink consults the oracle on one occasion, for example, because he is uncertain how to make amends with his employer, Wyndam-Matson, and on another occasion, for example, as to whether he should set up a jewellery business. Juliana, too, seems to have developed a dependency on the I Ching and admits that “I use it all the time to decide. I never let it out of my sight (Dick, 1982; 1962, chapter 6, para. 77). Her dependency even has her stopping the car she is driving at one point in order to consult the I Ching, then, having done so, resumes her journey.

Tagomi’s use of the I Ching stems from a cultural tradition. But his use of the oracle seems to stem from his belief that “we must all have faith in something. . . . We cannot see ahead, on our own” (Dick, 1982; 1962, chapter 5, para. 99). Tagomi seems to use the oracle to stay in as balanced a state as possible.

It seems the novel’s protagonists can only rely whole-heartedly on the oracle and not on the vagaries of their changing interactions with others or the world in which they find themselves – a world in which the Nazis have carried on their horrific deeds. The protagonists’ characters will not permit them to rely on themselves, so they resort to referring to an oracle in order to live their lives. It seems they require a confidant and have permitted the oracle to be that guiding confidant whose advice they can trust when fearful, apprehensive or stressful occasions arise.

What does Dick (1995) himself theorise about the I Ching?

The I Ching is “analytical and diagnostic, not predictive” (Dick, 1995, p. 179). That is, it is not a means of telling the future and has nothing to do with the cause and effect occurrences which happen in linear time (Dick). It deals with synchronicity which cannot be pre-empted (Dick). I thought this definition aptly explained synchronicity: “apparently meaningful coincidences in time of two or more similar or identical events that are causally unrelated” (HarperCollins, 2001, p. 1528). These events, according to Dick (1995), happen outside usual time. Dick (1995) states that the I Ching is a means of guesstimating these synchronous occurrences so that the I Ching user is aware of future “meaningful coincidences” (p. 178) that will impact their lives – or, in other words, disturb linear time. The I Ching permits examination of the “koinos kosmos” (Dick, p. 180), that is “the shared world” (Dick, p. 175), but a person becomes immersed in “static time” (Dick, p. 180) if they attempt to live their life entirely by the book.

When reading The Man in The High Castle (Dick, 1982; 1962), it was interesting to note that both yarrow stalks and coins were used when the oracle was consulted, but surely the use of different media must bring about different hexagram results? Since a Moment is only fleeting – here now and then past - perhaps the results of this is not something that can ever truly be examined.

References

Brown, E. (2001). Introduction. In Dick, P.K., The Man in the High Castle (p. v-xii). London: Penguin.

Card, O. S. (1990). How to write science fiction and fantasy. Cincinnati, Ohio: Writer’s Digest Books. Retrieved September 12, 2010, from Google Scholar database. http://books.google.co.nz/books?hl=en&lr=&id=sV7T1SETQ08C&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=How+to+write+science+fiction+and+fantasy&ots=YTZAdlly02&sig=Cy81Dwg_akCgw0WtpbGOVaHWPR4#v=onepage&q&f=false

HarperCollins. (2001). Collins concise dictionary: 21^st century edition (5^th ed.). Glasgow: Author.

Dick, P.K. (1995). Schizophrenia and the I Ching. In Sutin, L. (ed.), The shifting realities of Philip K. Dick (pp. 175-182). New York: Vintage.

Dick, P.K. (1982; 1962). The Man in The High Castle. New York, NY: Berkley Publishing. Retrieved September 1, 2010, from Auckland University of Technology Popular Genres Blackboard Online site: https://autonline.aut.ac.nz/webapps/portal/
frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D39673%26url%3D

Mountfort, P. (2006). Oracle-text/cybertext in Philip K. Dick’s The Man in The High Castle. Conference paper, Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association annual joint conference, Atlanta, 2006.

Urbanski, H. (2007; 1975). Plagues, apocalypses and bug-eyed monsters: how speculative fiction shows us our nightmares. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. Retrieved September 12, 2010, from http://books.google.co.nz/books?id=
2Hs086tV3fcC&pg=PA25&dq=Plagues,+apocalypse+Urbanski&hl=en&ei=9H6VTML5A5H0tgPrquHACg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Plagues%2C%20apocalypse%20Urbanski&f=false