Blog 39

I'm just really enjoying HBO Sunday night programming tonight. I don't really have too much homework to do so I can just relax and watch this TV. There are two shows that I really love on Sunday nights; one is called Bored to Death and the other is Eastbound and Down. Bored to Death is about a failing writer turned private detective. Its a really great show and I feel like I have a lot in common with the main character, with the exception that he is constantly stoned while on the job.  This was a good episode because they got to show that the producers really don't take the show too seriously. They took the main problem of one of the characters that has been a huge plot line this season and just completely turned it around by boiling it down to a simple mistake.
The other show is Eastbound and Down. It is about a pitcher who used to be in the major leagues trying to get back. Things are finally looking up for Kenny Powers again. After the first season, he fled to Mexico to escape the life that he had, but now that he has his pitch back he is going back to the United States to work back into the majors. The main character is just such a ridiculous man that everything he says is really funny. If any of you guys have seen this shows, let me know what you think of them because I love to talk about and watch TV.

Blog 38

I really want to finish this blog as fast as I can. My parents are having a party at our house today, so I'm exhausting my phone's contact list trying to find something else to do. My dad is inviting a lot of people over from his department at OSU, so the entire night will be full of me telling people where I'm applying to college unless I can get out of here soon. Luckily, I have church at 7 tonight so that will give me an excuse to leave, but the sooner the better. I went to another Halloween party yesterday, dressed as the same thing as last night, and the reviews were just as good. We had about 150 people over at my friend's house and they got two kegs of beer, which I'm sure would be fun if I actually drank alcohol. I don't mind drinking at all, but I'm definitely waiting until I'm 18 to drink at parties just so people don't get in huge trouble if a minor has alcohol. Thats 172 words. I have found a word count tool online so I don't have to type it into a word document, I just have to keep pressing word count to see how many word I am at. Its always so disappointing when I'm done with all my ideas and I'm not at 250. Like just then, it was at 224, which is not nearly enough! This is another late blog so I will have to do another one when I get back from church.

Blog 37

I don't want to do this blog! This is a busy weekend and I have lots of things to do. The last thing I want to is to spend time in my room typing into my computer a blog entry that people will only read so they can comment on it to earn more points. But anyway. now that I've started I might as well finish. Yesterday a went to a Halloween party in Westerville. We had a big building and most of it was just a dance floor. I really think that dance parties are only awkward if you make them awkward. I like to make a complete fool of myself when I'm dancing. Even though I probably look like a stumbling ogre when I dance, it is a lot of fun and it is much more enjoyable than sitting around the edges of the party. I went as a Greek God. I had a toga on with a wreath on my head and I even had a trident. The person I was going with was dressed the same and we had made a lightning bolt, but they forgot to bring it so I didn't take my trident in. There were some really creative costumes there. There were two people dressed as the BP Oil Spill which I thought was really funny. The best costume I saw though was someone dressed as Bob Ross. It was a completely perfect costume and they won an iPod because of it.

Blog 36

In my ninth grade English class, we were given the assignment to write a personal narrative from the perspective of a fictional character. For a long time, I couldn’t come up with a single idea. I thought it would be too easy to write it as a sports star or a successful business man, so instead I tried to go down a different road. My idea was to write as someone struggling to get out of a bad neighborhood but not succeeding. I thought that this would be a really insightful story where I shed light on the problems of the lower class in America to secure an easy A. The next problem I encountered was that I simply did not know where to start. There are no origin stories as to how people end up in the lower class; it is just what they were born into. I kept on working on my paper and I remember when I hit the two page mark I was satisfied. I went to read over my work before I submitted the assignment online, but then I realized something; I had written a terrible story. It was very easy to tell from reading the story that I had no idea what the lower class went through, and I imagined it would be even less convincing if someone who had actually experienced some sort of hardship read it. It dawned on me that however much I wanted to understand the perils of the lower class, I couldn’t. However much I claimed that I knew where they were coming from; I didn’t. However much I said I wasn’t like the rest of the upper class who can’t sympathize with the poor; I was. This goes for politicians too. They not only say, but they believe that they understand what people go through in the lowest classes. They are too detached from the poor to be capable of delivering them the sympathy they deserve.

                Picture a celebrity. This celebrity comes from a rich family, has tons of money, and hasn’t really worked for anything in their lives. They live in Beverly Hills and get paid millions of dollars to live their life in front of a video camera. One day this celebrity realizes that they aren’t in tune with the lower class, and they have a change of heart. They start to donate to charity, give speeches to the lower class; maybe even visit a third world country. After they have started this huge public campaign to help out the lower class, they start to proclaim that they get the lower class. In reality, all they really did was address the problem in ways that made their own image look better. They still don’t know what it’s like to not know the next time they will eat, live on minimum wage, or not make payments on a house. All they know is what it’s like to give money to the lower class and talk to them in impersonal venues. The only person who really benefits is the celebrity. People are more likely to adore them because they have shown a care for the lower class. This is applicable to politicians. It is a rarity to have a politician who honestly can say they understand the experiences of the lower class. Most of them are totally out of touch. They come from rich families and all they had to do was make it through luxurious private schools all their lives.

Blog 35

I read an article on Commonplace called "Why Rap is Going Down Down Down Down Down". I really do agree with the idea behind this. The author shows that hip hop sales have declined a lot in recent years, and he begins trying to spell out why. He explains that the trend is now that the beat makes the song rather than the rhymes in it. As long as the beat is solid, the rapper can talk about the usual topics; how many women he gets, all the cars he drives, how much money he makes, etc. Whatever happened to the intelligent songs that had something to say? What happened to music that actually meant something? However, I do think there are some exceptions to this trend. Newer rappers gaining popularity are the ones with a message to send. Listen to "Take a Minute" by K'naan, "Dumb it Down" by Lupe Fiasco, or nearly any of Kanye's new "Good Friday" songs. We still have people who know how to rap to get a message out rather than rap to get money. Admittedly, we still have people like Lil' Wayne who don't really have anything to say other than how awesome they are. I think the Lil' Waynes of the world aren't the people who are gaining popularity nowadays. People are realizing where rap is and they want to see it restored to the former glory; NWA, Notorious B.I.G., Public Enemy, Tupac, etc. We've seen rappers change themselves from being rappers with a purpose just to fit into their new market (50 Cent, Eminem), but if they can change one way, they should be able to go back.

Matthew

Blog 34

Well I realized as I was going to sleep at 12:45 last night that I didn't do this blog. I think it was a good move to save it for today, because I actually got a good amount of sleep. Anyway, for my Commonplace thing I'm still trying to decided exactly what I want to do. I'm either going to go with something very serious or something very not serious. The first idea I thought of was that the government, or anyone in positions of power, can rarely truly understand the common man, let alone the lower class. Most people in government come from wealthy backgrounds and haven't had to really fight for anything in their lives. This is the same for me. I come from an upper-middle class white family. I haven't been subject to discrimination and I don't know what its like to not know when you're next going to get to eat. Imagine what its like for the government. Most politicians grew up in private schools, had wealthy parents, and went to nice, Ivy-league schools. They don't exactly understand the perils of the lower class because they have never experienced it themselves.
My other idea for the Commonplace paper was to write about why Star Trek got cancelled. Its not exactly timely or relevant, so I probably won't do it. I just thought, "I could write about all these serious issues, or I could try to make English class fun!" As of now it looks like I'll be going with the not fun option.

Blog 33

Well, today I took a trip to the Apple Store to try to get my computer's Airport fixed so I can actually use it on campus. Since it broke I've been reduced to the corner of my basement where our Internet modem is so I can hook up straight to the Internet. It turns out that there is no immediate fix so they are taking it in for more repairs. Fortunately, I don't need my computer very much because the only document that I have to store is my Analytical Research Paper, and I have that on my flash drive. Unfortunately I have to find real things to do now that I don't have soccer practice everyday AND I don't have a computer to waste hours away on. I'm probably going to something like go to the RPAC or read books, things that should be above the computer in priority anyway.
I don't know what to write about because I feel like there is nothing really on my mind. I was so used to letting soccer take up all the thoughts in my head that now I don't know what to do with myself. I've been reading "Notes From Underground" by Fyodor Dostoevsky in my free time the past couple nights and really enjoy it. Anyone who likes kind of abstract, weird, philosophical literature should pick it up, but I think that is a pretty tiny fragment of our English class, possibly limited to only me.
Another thing is that I've been applying to colleges. I started my applications for OSU, Purdue, Columbia, and Brown over the past few days and have been plugging away at those. Its kind of a boring process, even though I understand what a big decision it is to make.

Matthew

Blog 32

I'm trying to think of what I want to schedule for next quarter. With my high school, I can only schedule classes that count as a GEC credit towards something, but it seems like I might be able to get some sort of exception to that. Recently I've been reading some books by Fyodor Dostoevsky (or at least trying), and I realized I could be doing it for a grade with Russian 250: Masterpieces of 19th Century Literature, but I'm taking a class right now that counts for that same GEC. Also, if I go to OSU next year, then I will qualify for Honors and I'll be able to take Russian 250H, which I might like even more. I also might take Physics 131 to get rid of one of my physical science GECs. The main reason I signed up for Calculus this quarter was to do Physics 131 next and then Intro to Architecture. I might still do that but I also think I might go on to take Social Science classes next quarter. I want to make sure I have at least one interesting class each quarter, and Classics is what I'm doing right now. I might want to do the Russian Class next or maybe something totally different! I've always thought I might like Astronomy of Anthropology, but I also don't know what I ever want, so I guess I'll just make a last minute decision! I guess I'll just let you guys know when I make a decision, whenever that may be.

Blog 31

This has probably been the longest day I've had in a long time. I woke up at 7 in the morning to go to Watterson High School in order to take the ACT. Last time I took it I got a 31, and I think that I have probably improved on that score by one or two points, but I could be wrong. It was terrible to take a five hour test though, and I was so tired afterwards that I didn't want to do anything. I took a nap from 2 to 4:15, when I had to leave for my soccer game. We left from Whetstone at 4:45 to catch the bus to Dublin Jerome High School. The drive took a really long time because the bus driver drove in a huge circle twice before realizing where we were. We got to Jerome at 5:40, and in the state playoffs you are only allowed one hour of warmup, so we couldn't actually step onto the field until 6:00, which was kind of a boring wait. Once the game started, it was pretty fun. The first half ended up tied 0-0, which was a lot better than we were expected to do. We were playing well though and so were they. They scored two goals in the first ten minutes of the second half, and a third with fifteen minutes left. None of the goals were really off our mistakes, we just didn't have situations turn out how we wanted. We scored a goal with eight minutes left, but we couldn't keep going. So at the end we lost 3-1, but we had a blast on the field. The season is officially over, but we went out to Roosters one last time as a team to celebrate our season.

Blog 30

I'm just trying to get this blog out of the way before its too late. Today I have possibly my last soccer practice ever seeing as if we lose tomorrow thats it for our season. I think it will most likely be a really easy day just so we're all well rested when we go up against Dublin Jerome tomorrow night. Tonight I'm gonna go to sleep pretty early because I've got the ACT for a third and hopefully final time tomorrow morning.  I'm totally content with my score, but my parents want me to take it again to make sure I have plenty of options of where to go at the end of this year. I currently have a 31 on the ACT, which is good enough for me to qualify for honors next year if I go to OSU. However, if I can get up to a 32 then I'll be eligible for a full ride to OSU. Its not too big a deal if I don't though because my dad works at the university so I will get half tuition if I go anyway. Also, I think it says something that my parents can afford to send my brother to Brown University, which costs approximately $55,000 a year. I think I will do better on the ACT this time, because both other times I've taken it I haven't been in a math class, and right now I'm taking Calc. 151 and doing pretty well. Math is definitely fresh in my mind right now, so it is good to be taking it. In a few weeks I'm also taking the SAT subject tests in Literature and Math II. Well, I'll let you know how everything goes tomorrow.

Blog 29: Paper excerpt

Tell me what you think! This is the beginning of the "Why it matters" section:
Writers, producers, and directors use fiction to apply real themes to imaginary situations. In order to make compelling television shows, the show has to be relevant to the present. When there are strong ties to the present, the show becomes something that is compelling to watch and will bring in good ratings for the show. The Cloud Minders was released in 1969. In 1969, President Lyndon B. Johnson has already signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968, but there was still a lot of discrimination, and the topic of equal rights was fresh in most people’s minds. This fact legitimizes The Cloud Minders as an accurate portrayal of the kind of discrimination that was going on in the world. The producers of Star Trek wanted to make something that was timely and that’s themes would be applicable to the world that people were living in. The parallels between The Cloud Minders and the Caste System in India are no coincidence; The Cloud Minders was made to reflect real discrimination that was going on in America, and the proper way to approach it.
Being able to watch this episode and comprehend the themes objectively better equips us to understand our own world objectively. When we see both sides of the discrimination on Ardana without any bias, we can easily recognize that there is a huge social injustice being done to the Troglytes.

Matthew

Blog 28

I'm feeling good today English class. I just got back from my soccer team's first game of the state playoffs, and we won. Its the first time our school has won a playoff game since 2002, and it was also at home for the first time since 2000. We played Central Crossing from Grove City. They were a fast and physical team, but they weren't organized enough to create any actual plays; they just tried to kick it over our defense and hope our players didn't get to the ball first. Fortunately, the one time their player got to the ball first, he shot it way over the goal. Our defense played one of the best games yet this season, mainly because of my friend Stefan playing as sweeper; the last line of defense.
The final score of the game was 3-0, and it was really good to get a shutout in our first playoff win in so long. We are going to have a lot of momentum going into our next game against Dublin Jerome. To be honest, Dublin Jerome should crush us, but it will be an interesting game. We are playing away, on Jerome's turf field which is really nice. We have a lot of momentum going into this game, and the way we've been playing the second half of this season has been really impressive. We beat the rival Clintonville team, Watterson, two weeks ago in what proved to be the biggest upset of the season. They came in expecting to walk all over us, but we played really hard and beat them 2-1. Hopefully Jerome thinks they're gonna have a walk in the park with us, because we know we have nothing to lose and we're gonna play hard.

Blog 27

I just wrote a paper for my Classics class, and right when I was going to sleep for the night, I thought "Don't I have to do a blog for today?".  I'm pretty upset with my memory right now. I really would have preferred to realize I  didn't do it in the morning, and then say "Well there's no point in doing it now" (hopefully I'd forget you can do it late for half-credit). Then I'd get to not do a blog all together. Unfortunately, I'm not strong willed enough to realize I have an assignment due and then not do it.
Well, there is something to talk about. There's a show I watch on Sunday nights called "Bored to Death". Its about a struggling writer who advertises himself as an unlicensed private detective on Craigslist. Thats not what's important though. I had just finished watching a good episode, and as the credits rolled a song played that I really liked the sound of. I looked up the name of the song, listened to it a few times, and then began to explore the artist. His name is Josh Ritter, and I think he's like a modern Bob Dylan, except good at singing. I bought a few of his albums and am really digging them. If you want, listen to the song "The Temptation of Adam". Its a really powerful song, that addresses a big issue in our lives while also telling a love story. The song I heard in the credits was called "Long Shadows" and that one is really catchy too. Definitely check them out if you like folk music.

Blog 26

I'm running out of ideas. Movie Review, Concert Experience, and Car theft story are basically the three most interesting things I can produce, so I think things will go downhill from here. I think this blog will have a lot of typos because I just had soccer practice for two hours in rain and cold, and my hands are quite numb. Sorry in advance.
I have a paper due for my Classics class on Thursday. Its only two pages, 1.5 space, but I really don't want to start. I know it will be easy to finish, but I just can't find the motivation to write the first sentence. I also have a big set of homework problems due in Calculus on Friday, but, what do you know, I don't want to work on that either. I just want to sleep and while I'm asleep have someone else do all my assignments. Usually after the first couple weeks of classes I just get really stressed out. Even though my work is super manageable, I just don't want to do any of it. Not that I ever want to do work, but this is different somehow. I try to justify to myself why it would make sense to just not do the assignment at all, but I know that I'll do them at some point, even if it means doing a paper and 30 problems in one night. Fortunately, this assignment gives me a chance to complain, which seems to be something I am more than willing to do whenever I can!

Blog 25

I just say that new-ish movie Machete! That movie was so unbelievably awesome. If any of you go to see it, don't do in expecting it to be somewhat realistic, it is a completely over the top action movie, and I loved every second of it. To illustrate this point, at one point in the movie, the main character, Machete takes out someone's intestine, jumps out a window and uses the intestine to break into the window on the floor below. There are so many scenes that left me in total disbelief! It is also a very star-studded cast. WIth the exception, of Machete, every other character is played by a famous actor / actress. With Robert DeNiro, Steven Seagal, Jessica Alba, Michelle Rodriguez, Lindsay Lohan, and even Cheech Martin (from Cheech and Chong), this movie delivers memorable characters because we recognize the actors and actresses.
Well, that wasn't enough words, and now I have to think about something else to write.
I don't think I'm interesting enough to write 250 words about whatever I want everyday. Now I'm counting how many words I'm at after every sentence so I can get this over with as soon as possible. I still haven't eaten breakfast, and its 11:30 in the morning. There's a bowl of cereal with my name on it in the kitchen, and all I have to get through before I'm there is this accursed blog entry. Fifteen words to go, make that eleven, actually eight, hold on, six, now just three.

Blog 24!

Well, I forgot to do this yesterday, but thats no big problem. However, there have been some big developments in the life of Matthew Brew recently. As I was going out to my car yesterday morning to drive over to a friends house, nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. I get into my car, put the keys in the ignition, then I realize that the glove box is open. No big deal, I just reach over and close it, but then I see tons of glass shattered on my passenger seat. I look up to find out that the window was smashed in. My next instinct was to make sure my iPod was still there, but it most definitely was not there. Fortunately, I'm a high schooler that lives with my parents so I won't have to pay for anything! We called in the window repair people, and my car has a nice, brand new, shiny window for me to admire. On the other hand, my car doesn't have any music capabilities anymore so I have just been listening to the radio. After one day of having just the radio to listen to, I have probably heard the same 3 songs about 15 times. However, my wealthy parents will provide me with a new iPod soon enough, and I'll be back in business. One thing is that the day before the robbery, I had gone to a car wash. I think that had my car not been so sparkly clean from the car wash, the car thief wouldn't have seen it and thought, "What a great looking, clean car! I bet there are valuable things inside that I can steal!"

Blog 23: Anything?

This is so new! We get to write about whatever we want! It doesn’t have to be about English or assignments! Well I guess I can write about whatever is on my mind, so I’ll do just that!
Last night I went to the Iron & Wine concert at the Student Union. I have been wanting to see Iron & Wine since I was a freshmen in high school. They came once before the summer after my freshmen year, but I missed it because I was on a trip to China with my high school. After going to the concert last night, I would have gladly missed out on going to China to see a performance like that. I like to think I’m a pretty chilled out person, and no music is comparable in chill out-ness to Iron & Wine. He has so much material that there’s no way he could ever play all his songs, but all the songs I was hyped for coming in, with one major exception, he played. As he walked off the stage at the end of his set, I was left with my two favorite songs still not played, Resurrection Fern and Love Vigilantes. Fortunately, we were a good enough crowd to persuade him to come back for an encore, and he played an incredible version of Resurrection Fern. I think its really cool how he changes the songs up when he plays solo. Its totally understandable; most of his tracks are multi-layered and use a couple guitars to record the whole thing, but all he had up there was himself, and his friend Rob Burger, a multi-instrumentalist. I was so incredibly excited to hear that he was coming to town, and I was also incredibly excited that it was completely free to go to! If you have never listened to Iron & Wine, I suggest you fix that right now!
Matthew

Blog 22: Abstract

In the Star Trek episode The Cloud Minders, we see a world, Ardana, torn into two distinct classes. One of these classes lives in a floating city, representative of the upper class, and the other is characterized by miners that live on the surface, representative of the lower class. The classism that exists on this planet is a result of unequal opportunity across the two classes to prove themselves and also the upper class’ unwillingness to change what is going so well for them. We see these ideas demonstrated throughout the episode, with scenes where the upper class refuses to use logic in order to keep the lower class in the place they are. This episode has close parallels in our world. The Cloud Minders was released towards the end of the Civil Rights Movement, so it was obviously created with some parallels to the recent surge for black rights in mind. However, there is still discrimination in this world that is very important to be aware of. The Caste system in India is similar in concept to the classism on Ardana. Both systems are ancient in origin, but still have huge effects on society in the present. However, rather than having just two class distinctions, India has four main castes, and a lot of variance among those castes. Although The Cloud Minders was originally intended to be nothing more than good, relevant television, we can see how the work of a crew in the 1960’s still gives us valuable insight into modern discriminations.

Matthew

Blog 21: More Quotes!

It is easy to see that Ardana is not living in peace. They are divided between two worlds that are not willing to compromise and live together. The people of Stratos want to maintain the world they have created, while the Troglytes want to live off the tumultuous surface and live alongside the Stratos city dwellers. India can be looked at in a similar way. We see that there are different sides forming, none of which can come to a uniform agreement of the best course of action. However, unlike Stratos, where the world is divided into two distinct classes, India is divided into a handful of castes, all wanting different things from the others. David Gilmartin is a professor of history at the University of California at Berkely who specializes in modern South Asian history. In April 2010, Gilmartin said that for India “to achieve complete...unity, it is necessary that...caste...should be killed and effaced”(Gilmartin 409). When Indians identify themselves by what caste they are from, they are creating lines that are impossible to cross. In order to achieve any sort of social mobility, it is necessary to stop putting these lines up. Instead of Indians labeling themselves as Dalits or Brahmin, they should simply identify themselves as people trying to reach an agreement. Without the incorporation of caste into debate, a case for universal equal rights is much more viable. Just as on Ardana, the people need to stop identifying themselves as “city dweller” or “Troglyte”, they need to identify themselves as people of the planet Ardana.

Matthew

Blog 20

We saw how the Stratos city dwellers, claiming to live in a violence-free society, so quickly turned to torture when they were to deal with a Troglyte. Similarly, in India, it is rare for the Dalits to receive the full treatment prescribed to them by the law. Debjani Ganguly studies Caste discrimination with Australian National university. She tells us that "every day two Dalits are murdered, three Dalit women are raped, two Dalit houses are destroyed and eleven Dalits are beaten up. The general apathy of the state machinery to these heinous crimes, the complicity and incompetence of the medical establishment in the face if muders and rapes, and the blindness of the mainstream media to these depredations is also routine"(Ganguly 430). Although India bosts an effective system of justice, we see that when it comes to the Dalits, the system is all too willing to turn a blind eye. The people of Stratos are comparably willing to go against their own code of conduct in order to deal with the lower class. A society that takes pride in its logic and claims to have "eliminated violence" quickly resorts to violent torture to get information they need from the lower class. Both societies view their lowest class as somehow separate in value from the rest of the population. simply because they were not born into the "right" family.

Matthew

Blog 19

For my fourth article I read “Pain, Personhood and the Collective: Dalit Life Narratives”. This article talked about how Dalits are limited in progressing socially. Since the only means they have to represented officially come through the law, it is hard to understand the concept of a Dalit in the language of the law as an actual person, who is actively suffering in our world. There are laws enforced by the Indian Government that deal with “Dalit” as a term, and there are international laws that use “human” as a term. Both of these leave us with abstract concepts of what we are dealing with. We cannot recognize the personhood behind the object of the law because we do not understand the suffering and persecution experienced by an abstract term. The author proposes that we use one particular form of Dalit literature as a window into the personhood behind the abstract terms.
This literature is labeled “Life Narratives”. It is characterized as narratives told by Dalits and members of the community about the suffering that they have experienced. When we pair life narratives with an understanding of the law, we see that the life narrative turns out to be far more insightful that a line of law can ever be. After reading the article, I researched a few life narratives from Dalit people and they have transformed the way I see the problem. I knew that injustice was done, but I did not know it carried on to the point of murder, rape, and consistent beatings. The more I find out about the caste system’s discrimination, the more disturbed I become.

Matthew

Blog 18!

For my third research piece, I read a paper titled “Rule of Law, Rule of Life: Caste, Democracy, and the Courts in India”. This article talks heavily about some of the problems with India’s democracy. It goes into detail about some social forces that make a true democracy impossible. Social campaigns are forced to speak different messages to different peoples in order to have a chance at winning elections because of the vastly different mindsets between castes. The article says that in order for India “to achieve complete inner unity, it is necessary that...caste should be killed and effaced”. Without a united mindset that can all be appealed to in the same way, there is no way for a democracy to work across the country. We have seen India unite together under one common cause before; “To create Pakistan, all that was necessary, was “purity of intention and cleansing of the hear,” leaving “greed” and “fear”-along with “biradaris, tribes, personal animosities and rivalries” - behind.
I believe that this unification of caste must start from the top down. The government needs to, by any means necessary, eliminate legal caste discrimination and ensure that caste does not play a role in judicial rulings. This article speaks a lot about the judicial rulings, and how these are affected by caste. The judge has to address both the issue of how to properly defend the law in any situation, and also how to make sure that caste discrimination is not coming into play.

Matthew

Blog 17

I read the article “Caste and the Desire for Belonging”. It was published in December 2009 by Ursula Rao, and it has shown me further parallels between the caste system in India and the classism on the planet Ardana. This article looks at a particular case study of the Khatik community. The Khatiks are in the Dalit caste, and we can see how they use their community to come together and move forward. Although Dalits are the lowest caste, Rao says that “Dalits express pride in their heritage”. When a community exists that has been labeled by the outside world as less important than other communities, it is inevitable that the community will unite together and prove that they are just as valuable. People are proud to be who they, just as the Troglytes were not ashamed of the way they were looked upon by the people of Stratos.
Even with heavy caste discrimination reform, caste still “circumscribes duty” in a large way in India. The jobs that are available to Dalits are very different from those offered to the Brahmin. The Troglytes are similar. They are born as Troglytes, and the world they are born into leaves them destined to become a miner. Although there are no laws on Ardana that state a Troglyte must become a miner, it is accepted as fact by everyone, even down to the Troglytes.
The study that I looked at however, showed that the Khatiks use their strong unification to achieve “social mobility”. They fight for their rights by standinh together, just like the Troglytes did in The Cloud Minders.

Matthew

Blog 16: Research 1

The first article I’ve read is titled “Caste Discrimination and Minority Rights: The Case of India’s Dalits.” This article deals with how Dalits (formerly “Untouchables”), are still discriminated against in our society. Although there are strict laws against any kind of minority discrimination that are applied universally, some loopholes have been found. The Dalits are not officially recognized as a minority in their country, partly because the lowest caste makes up one sixth of the population of India, turning out to be approximately 167 million people. Even more specific laws have been made to eliminate caste discrimination, but it still plays a monumental role in society. The Dalits are much like the Troglytes in the Star Trek episode I am looking at; although there is no official policy in favor of discrimination against Dalits, in fact there are strong laws against any caste discrimination, it is still a huge social power where they live. The Troglytes are entitled to live in the city of Stratos by all means, but everyone knows that the way things actually are, not the way the law says it should be, is that Troglytes are miners and that Stratos city dwellers are intellectuals. It is just the same in the case of some parts of India, although there are laws against it, there is a idea shared by many people that the castes are not quite equal. I am very interested to see how more connections emerge between the episode of Star Trek and discrimination that goes on in our world.

Matthew

Blog 15: Research Ideas

Until today, I was planning on doing some kind of research about the Civil Rights Movement to tie in with my episode, but after reading the Commonplace chapter I think that I should focus on something more timely. The discrimination going on in the episode I watched was being actively performed, but it has traces very far back in history, for thousands of years. Similarly, the separation of the Caste system in India is a huge basis for discrimination in India today, but its origins go back so far that they are in fact completely unknown, made into a thing of legend.
Although India has made strides to correct the issue of severe Caste discrimination, it is still a powerful social force, and it is key to consider when looking at anything from treatment of people in rural India to how elections turn out. I think it will be interesting to see the parallels between the modern caste system in India and the way that the Troglytes were treated in The Cloud Minders.
Resources:

Waughray, Annapurna. "Caste Discrimination and Minority Rights: The Case of India's Dalits." International Journal on Minority & Group Rights 17.2 (2010): 327-353. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 7 Oct. 2010.

Rao, Ursula. "Caste and the Desire for Belonging." Asian Studies Review 33.4 (2009): 483-499. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 7 Oct. 2010.

GILMARTIN, DAVID. "AHR Forum: Rule of Law, Rule of Life: Caste, Democracy, and the Courts in India." American Historical Review 115.2 (2010): 406-427. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 7 Oct. 2010.

Ganguly, Debjani. "Pain, Personhood and the Collective: Dalit Life Narratives." Asian Studies Review 33.4 (2009): 429-442. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 7 Oct. 2010.

Waughray, Annapurna. "Caste Discrimination: A Twenty-First Century Challenge for UK Discrimination Law?." Modern Law Review 72.2 (2009): 182-219. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 7 Oct. 2010.

Matthew

Blog 14: The Cloud Minders.....AGAIN!

The episode I am choosing for my ARP is The Cloud Minders, an episode of the original Star Trek series. In my first blog, I talked about how this episode is directly symbolic of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960’s. This episode was filmed in November 1968, shortly after Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated. It is a basic story of the haves against the have nots, and since the haves can only see their side of the story, they do not recognize what an injustice they are doing to the Troglytes of their planet. There are two classes on the planet Ardana, the people of Stratos and the Troglytes. The people of Stratos live in a city in the sky, above the rest of the world just as they view themselves as higher than the rest of their world’s people.
Just like the Civil Rights Movement, some people on both sides of the story were complacent with their situation, but there were a few key figures on either side that paved the way to a new understanding. The people of Stratos are scared as they realize the Troglytes may not be as evil a they thought, and they react with violence because they are afraid that the society that they have built is in jeopardy. Spock says “Those who receive the reward are completely separated from the people who shoulder the burden.” The Troglytes are the people who keep their society working with all the grunt work, and they are completely unappreciated by the upper class. Unequal opportunity to succeed is one of the key factors leading to the class separation, but also the fear held by the people of Stratos that their society will fall to pieces without the work of the Troglytes. I think this is a good episode to choose, and the real world connection will be quite easy to research.
Matthew

Blog 13: Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-Long Blog

I watched Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-Long blog for my last episode selection. I have seen it before, and I must say it is one of my favorite videos on the Internet. However, before now I was just watching it for entertainment, but now that I look at it through the lens of what the theme is and what the show is trying to address, I feel that I can appreciate the show even more. As funny as it is, it does address some pretty big issues.
Dr. Horrible is a man who simply wants to join the Evil League of Evil and become world known as one of the most evil super-villains in the world. However, we can tell from the show that this motivation to do evil things does not come from a malicious personality, but Dr. Horrible just wants to be accepted and appreciate by people. Lots of people in real life will change who they are to fit in with a crowd that they want to fit in with.
We also see the motif that everyone ultimately wants the same sort of things out of life. Both Dr. Horrible and his nemesis Captain Hammer want more than anything else to have their mutual love interest fall in love with each one of them. We see that even though Captain Hammer fights for justice and Dr. Horrible fights to promote evil, they are both humans, and human nature is to want relationships. Dr. Horrible ends up killing the love interest and Captain Hammer and gets accepted into the Evil League of Evil, but he realized that he went too far in changing who he was to be happy with the new crowd he fit in with.

Matthew

Teacher's Pet

I just finished watching the episode Teacher’s Pet. This was episode four of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and it dealt with the common high school story of students having a crush on the teacher, however the teacher was actually a praying mantis and instead of students getting a detention they get beheaded. One thing I didn’t like about the episode was that there was no character development of the teacher, we just saw her impressing all the boys and then capturing someone and then being killed. We didn’t really learn anything about how she got to Sunnydale in the first place or why she picked the people that she picked to be her victims. The episode was still good but I felt that it didn’t really progress the overall story of the show, other than making it more obvious that Willow has some sort of feelings for Xander.
I thought it was interesting to see the differences in rationality between the boys who were in love and the girls who weren’t. Willow and Buffy stayed perfectly reasonable the entire time, and when they confronted Xander with all their evidence, he simply ignore them and kept on going after Ms. French. He assumed that Buffy was just jealous that another girl found him attractive, even though in reality he is the one who has a crush on Buffy. Even in the face of indisputable evidence, all the boys who were head over heels for Ms. French denied and justified in order to not let anything get in the way of a romance.

Matthew

Witch

I watched Witch, the third episode of Buffy for today’s blog. This is one of the episodes that the High School is Hell article talked about. Buffy is trying out for the cheerleading team and finds out that the team is very competitive. One of the girls on the team is trying to fill her mother’s shoes, but does not quite make the team. She is the third alternate, and as the episode goes on, three people from the cheerleading team are hurt in supernatural ways. Buffy and Giles realize there must be a witch at work, and through a few tests they find out that the girl is the witch. However, we find out that the girl’s mother is the actual witch and she switched bodies with her daughter to relive her glory years.
This episode deals with the real issue of people trying too hard to impress their parents and also to get on sports teams, although this does exaggerate it. People will hurt themselves trying to be good enough, and although they may not resort to spell casting, there is certainly some sabotage that can go on. I know lots of parents who try to live vicariously through their kids to some degree, whether it be through sports or academics. People often feel alienated from their parents when this is the case, because they don’t make any efforts to relate to the kid, they just make sure their kids live like they did. This is a good issue to have addressed by this show, because it allowed me to appreciate what the daughter must have been going through.

Matthew

The Harvest

I just finished watching The Harvest, the second episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and I can easily see myself getting addicted to this show if I don’t watch myself. They do such a good job at combining the problems of high school and the problems of vampires that I can understand what the characters are going through a lot better than most science fiction shows. I thought there were two particular instances of this in The Harvest. During the school day, Buffy needs to leave to go save one of her friends from vampires, and as she is confidently walking out of the building, the principal stops her and tells her that she has to stay on school campus during the day. Then, the next instance was when Buffy was about to go out to a club to stop vampires from killing everyone. As she was getting dressed to go, Buffy’s mom walks in and tells her that she has to stay in for the night.
Both these instances go to show how well the show makes the real situations stand out by making them take precedence over the supernatural. We are reminded by these moments that just because this is a science fiction show with vampires, werewolves, and other mythical beasts, Buffy is still just a teenage girl with teenage girl problems. This gives us a new platform to relate to her character because we have all been teenagers and we can understand what she is going through more than we would have if she was purely a vampire slayer.

Matthew

Welcome to the Hellmouth

I watched Welcome to the Hellmouth, the first episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I really wanted to watch an episode after watching the teaser in class and then reading a few blog posts about the show. After reading High School is Hell, I noticed more how they made Buffy more concerned with dealing with her personal life than she was with dealing with vampires. Her interactions with Giles were very uninterested when talking about the vampires, but when topics turned to her social life at the new school, she was very concerned and passionate.
One scene that I thought captured this very well was soon after Buffy discovered that the man Willow was trying to “seize the moment” with was a vampire. Buffy went down a hallway to find the vampire, and when someone snuck up close behind her, she spun around and put a stake up to her neck. However, it was not the vampire, it was actually the most popular girl in her new school. As she left the club, Giles asked her if the vampire was dead and she replied with something along the lines of “No, but my social life is another story”. This shows just what High School is Hell was talking about. By decreasing emphasis on the supernatural, the real stands out more. Since Buffy brushes off the question of whether she killed the vampire, we are given a better way to look in on her life and understand what she is going through as a character.
I wasn’t as enthralled by the first episode of Buffy as I expected, but I am going to watch a few more episodes to see if I get more into it.

Matthew