Sunday, June 20, 2010

More Ubiquitous Than We Thought

You know how after you learn a new word you start seeing it everywhere. Well it seems that this is true for themes too. I saw Toy Story 3 last Friday and near the end Barbie says something intelligent that was obviously meant to be funny because her character is supposed to be dumb. For those of you who took World History last year, AP or not, you may remember John Locke and The Social Contract. Well this is exactly what Barbie's lines come from. She says, "Authority should derive from the consent of the governed..." Well when I heard that I realized that this theme of the delicate relationship between people and their governments is more ubiquitous than I thought. It's Toy Story a kid's movie, and here it is making serious statements about society. Apparently this theme isn't solely confined to the distopia genre.
As I read more into the world of Brave New World, I hope to find more occurrences like this. Meaning, I hope that more themes of our summer reading worm their way into the rest of our lives. Already this has happened, for as Lenora stated in an earlier post she noticed the "Now... this" phenomenon that Postman brought to our attention. I too have criticized these horrible segways from depressing topics to ridiculous ones. So I hope this blog becomes sort-of-a list of funny little happenings in our lives where reality and literati collide. After all, something I learned in history followed me to English and then into the movies.

4 comments:

  1. I don't think Barbie's quote in the movie was pure coincidence. I guess before, we went through days of our lives truly ignorant and clueless, maybe even...careless. The more educated we get and the more we challenge ourselves the more we will notice these occurrences and they will affect us for the rest of our lives, they will even benefit us. I guess your blog post just goes to show that everything we learn in school and elsewhere does really follow us, and what we choose to take will us or what we choose to let go will dramatically effect our lives.

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  3. When I saw Toy Story 3 on Friday as well, I was dumbfounded when Barbie, out of all the characters who were present at the scene, stated something that we thought would only come from the mouth of someone who was...educated. After this thought, I've realized that I have, as well, become biased over the years, assuming that Barbie was dumb just because of the stereotype that blondes are stupid. This also goes as to how the media has changed our perspective of different sexes and of different races. I believe that years of watching comedic and naive shows and movies on TV have made a significant impact on the way I look at others, even when I know in my heart that it would be wrong and ignorant of me to think that way. I am sure that I am not the only one who have been influenced by the media in this way, so I ask this question to anyone who sees this comment- how has the media influenced the way you see other people, even your friends and family?

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  4. In response to Louise Angeles; Media has influenced me in the past to see rappers as "ghetto", to see a woman as "less powerful" and to see a supposedly educated white male as "a naturally born intelligent leader" or maybe even "racist". I admit that I have been almost brainwashed by media, I have, at times fallen into a uncorroborated prejudice state of mind. As far as friends and family go, It's natural to compare to others and rank yourself, but to think of one as label you created yourself without getting to know them is pure hypocrisy.

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