coolmapiehoff

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

computers are running slow again.

For the last 20minutes I have been attempting to access a link to "The Secret Letter From Iraq", so I could read this passage and compare it to the story of Billy Pilgrim, one of the main characters of the book Slaughter House Five. My computer however refuses to present this page to me, so I will make a valliant attempt to make this comparison without actually reading the passage.
In the story, Billy is a, seemingly out of place, young man who is slipping in and out of the present time frame, constantly visiting the future and the past and therefore he is often oblivious to what is going on in reality. He walks around in destroyed loafers, bobbing up and down, and frequently gets his life saved by his comrade, Roland Weary, when gun-shots ring out and he makes no response to them whatsoever. I assume that in "The Secret Letter From Iraq" a soldier finds himself in a simmilar shell-shock induced situation. I sincerely wish I could have achieved the apparently daunting and unreasonable task of loading up the page in order to contrast between the two pieces of literature.

Monday, October 30, 2006

Country Joe and The Fish

Now here's a band everyone in the universe should probably listen to. It all started in 1965 when Country Joe McDonald would perform his original songs at anti-Vietnam war demonstrations. Then, the music he played consisted mainly of simple folk progressions and verbally dissident lyrics. Slowly he met up with other musicians and his project eventually involved into the band, Country Joe and The Fish. The band's peak was probably their appearance at Woodstock in 1969. Especially their legendary performances of "Rock and Soul Music" and the "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag".
In the words of Country Joe McDonald himself: "Now this ain't soul music, mind you. This is rock music, but it's got soul to it, if you can dig that." So if you can, "dig that", check them out. You won't be dissappointed.

Technorati Profile

Monday, October 16, 2006

Tralfamadorian ways - Slaughterhouse 5

In the book Slaughterhouse 5, there are extraterrestrials who go by the name of Tralfamadorians. They view time in four dimensions and therefore, it is very different to them. Billy is a human character who is abducted by them and is thereby taught their ways of thinking.
If Billy were to pass on their time perception methods, I believe it would have fairly negative results on society. People would no longer mind if their loved ones passed away and probably wouldn't care if they, themselves, died. Attitudes such as this would also result in people unintentionally harming others. Though I'm sure that there would be certain advantages, i believe that the human mind is not advanced enough and would not be able to exist with such mental processes.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Slaughterhouse 5 - promotion of war through media

In this novel(p14), Mary O'Hare makes some statements about war movies and how they glorify and encourage wars in real life. I agree with her ideas. It seems evident, in movies like "Braveheart" and "Independence Day" that war, though disturbing at times, can make everyone a hero.
Some examples of scenes that support this idea are when William Wallace is beheaded at the end of Braveheart and the part of Independence Day when one man makes a kamikazee-like attack on the alien ship to stop it from blowing up New York City. I realize that this will not influence an entire country to decide to go to war, but rather individuals, who grow up watching these movies.
Also, I believe that even if a movie can be considered anti-war, it still can not possibly do the brutality and carnage of actually fighting in a war any justice.