Uptian Sinclair And Socialism Essay -- essays research papers

Upton Sinclair and Socialism      Socialism has consistently been difficult for me to comprehend. I never truly got a handle on the idea of it until I read the book The Jungle and started to explore for this paper. Before I start I might want to go through a consolidated rendition of the historical backdrop of Socialism. It was established in 1901 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Two gatherings met up to shape the Socialists, the Social Democratic Party and the â€Å"Kangaroo† wing of the more seasoned Socialist Labor Party. These gatherings contained for the most part outsider laborers from enormous urban communities (Jurgis from The Jungle was one such anecdotal specialist). The new party extended and incorporated each kind of radical. They remained on the proverb of â€Å"reform versus revolution† what's more, centered fundamentally around the work union’s, â€Å"this incorporated the ideas of unrest by instruction and of ‘building the new society inside the shell of it’s old.’      In 1912 they had chosen two individuals from Congress and that's just the beginning than seventy city hall leaders. The most individuals it each accomplished at this time was 100,000 and even had a presidential up-and-comer, Eugene Debs, who got just about a million votes. Anyway soon the gathering started to have interior issues because of assorted belief systems. During the war half didn't put stock in the war and half trusted in Stalin and his Socialist ways, thusly, the gathering split.      The party had gotten powerless and didn't enter a political possibility for the presidential political race. Nonetheless, when the Great Melancholy started the Socialist party returned a go to maximum capacity and picked up quality. It ran Norman Thomas as their Presidential Competitor. He always lost yet kept on running, loosing votes each time he ran. At long last in 1948 with just 80,000 votes Thomas pronounced, â€Å"a Socialist presidential race was a worthless exertion and an articulate misuse of the party’s resources.†      This cautioning was pushed aside and the gathering ran Darlington Hoopes in 1952. He got simply 20,203 votes and in the following political decision he got just a woeful 2,126 votes in the race of 1956. The Socialist Party in this country had arrived at a smashing last end in terms of decisions. It now just had an immature 2,000 individuals across the nation. In 1960, the first run through since 1924 the Socialist party didn't enter a presidential applicant on the voting form.      It was at th... ...d author had faith in the intensity of Socialism during the occasions on the late 1800’s to the mid 1970’s. It was felt that it was the main genuine approach to end the â€Å" armed force of the unemployed†.           Sinclair may have not been an extraordinary essayist as far as structure or the utilization of imagery . He was increasingly keen on legislative issues as opposed to the inward reaches of a man’s mind. His character’s needed improvement past a static figure. He had no proper instruction as a author and aside from The Jungle he is barely recalled at all and doesn't matter to present day journalists. He basically endeavored to make writing practical and express his standards concerning Socialism and maybe convince a couple of more youthful individuals to join. He apparently fizzled to get a handle on the idea of writing in an entire â€Å"reveals life as mind boggling what's more, hard to fathom†. He just needed to rearrange it. Notwithstanding all this, he stays a riddle, a puzzler to pundits the world round. â€Å"Even inside a bigger acknowledgment of his abstract shortcomings and scholarly inner conflicts, and considering even his visual deficiency to racial persecution, Sinclairs’s duty to social equity orders respect.† Uptian Sinclair And Socialism Essay - articles look into papers Upton Sinclair and Socialism      Socialism has consistently been difficult for me to comprehend. I never truly got a handle on the idea of it until I read the book The Jungle and started to explore for this paper. Before I start I might want to go through a consolidated rendition of the historical backdrop of Socialism. It was established in 1901 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Two gatherings met up to frame the Socialists, the Social Democratic Party and the â€Å"Kangaroo† wing of the more established Socialist Labor Party. These gatherings contained generally settler laborers from large urban communities (Jurgis from The Jungle was one such anecdotal laborer). The new party extended and incorporated each sort of fanatic. They remained on the saying of â€Å"reform versus revolution† also, centered basically around the work union’s, â€Å"this incorporated the ideas of upheaval by training and of ‘building the new society inside the shell of it’s old.’      In 1912 they had chosen two individuals from Congress and that's only the tip of the iceberg than seventy city hall leaders. The most individuals it each achieved at this time was 100,000 and even had a presidential competitor, Eugene Debs, who got right around a million votes. Anyway soon the gathering started to have inner issues because of various philosophies. During the war half didn't have faith in the war and half put stock in Stalin and his Socialist ways, in this way, the gathering split.      The party had gotten feeble and didn't enter a political possibility for the presidential political race. In any case, when the Great Wretchedness started the Socialist party returned a go to maximum capacity and picked up quality. It ran Norman Thomas as their Presidential Competitor. He always lost however kept on running, loosing votes each time he ran. At long last in 1948 with just 80,000 votes Thomas proclaimed, â€Å"a Socialist presidential race was a pointless exertion and an express misuse of the party’s resources.†      This cautioning was pushed aside and the gathering ran Darlington Hoopes in 1952. He got simply 20,203 votes and in the following political decision he got just a woeful 2,126 votes in the race of 1956. The Socialist Party in this country had arrived at a smashing last end in terms of races. It now just had an immature 2,000 individuals across the nation. In 1960, the first run through since 1924 the Socialist party didn't enter a presidential up-and-comer on the voting form.      It was at th... ...d author trusted in the intensity of Socialism during the occasions on the late 1800’s to the mid 1970’s. It was felt that it was the main genuine approach to end the â€Å" armed force of the unemployed†.           Sinclair may have not been an extraordinary author as far as structure or the utilization of imagery . He was increasingly intrigued by governmental issues instead of the inward reaches of a man’s mind. His character’s needed improvement past a static figure. He had no conventional instruction as a essayist and aside from The Jungle he is scarcely recollected at all and makes little difference to present day scholars. He essentially endeavored to make writing useful and express his standards concerning Socialism and maybe convince a couple of more youthful individuals to join. He apparently fizzled to get a handle on the idea of writing in an entire â€Å"reveals life as mind boggling what's more, hard to fathom†. He only needed to disentangle it. Notwithstanding all this, he stays a riddle, a mystery to pundits the world round. â€Å"Even inside a bigger acknowledgment of his abstract shortcomings and scholarly inner conflicts, and considering even his visual impairment to racial persecution, Sinclairs’s promise to social equity orders respect.†

Differences Between Whales, Dolpins and Porpoises

Contrasts Between Whales, Dolpins and Porpoises Are dolphins and porpoises whales? These marine vertebrates share numerous things for all intents and purpose. Whales, dolphins, and porpoises all fall under the request cetacea. Inside this request, there are two suborders, the Mysticeti, or baleen whales, and the odontoceti, or toothed whales, which incorporates dolphins and porpoises just as sperm whales. If you think about that, dolphinsâ and porpoises are truly whales.â Size Matters for Being Called a Whale or Not While dolphins and porpoises are in a similar request and suborder as whales, they for the most part arent given a name that incorporates the word whale. The term whale is utilized as an approach to recognize size among species, with cetaceans longer than around nine feet thought about whales, and those under nine feet since a long time ago viewed as dolphins and porpoises. Inside the dolphins and porpoises, there is a wide range in size, from the orca (executioner whale), which can arrive at lengths up to around 32 feet, to the Hector’s dolphin, which can be under four feet in length. That is the manner by which the orca comes to have the basic name of executioner whale. This qualification keeps alive our picture of a whale being something extremely enormous. At the point when we hear the word whale, we consider Moby Dick or the whale that gulped Jonah in the Bible story. We dont consider Flipper, the bottlenose dolphin of the 1960s TV arrangement. In any case, Flipper could properly guarantee he was, truth be told, grouped with the whales. Distinction Between Dolphins and Porpoises While dolphins and porpoises are fundamentally the same as and individuals regularly utilize the term reciprocally, researchers by and large concur that there are four significant contrasts among dolphins and porpoises: Dolphins have cone-molded teeth while porpoises have level or spade-formed teeth.Dolphins for the most part have an articulated â€Å"beak,† while porpoises don't have a beak.Dolphins for the most part have a bended or snared dorsal balance, while porpoises have a triangular dorsal fin.Porpoises are commonly littler than dolphins. Meet the Porpoises To get considerably increasingly explicit, the term porpoise ought to likewise allude just to the seven species that are in the family Phocoenidae (harbor porpoise, vaquita, spectacled porpoise, Burmeister’s porpoise, Indo-Pacific finless porpoise, limited furrowed finless porpoise and Dall’s porpoise). Likenesses Between All Whales - the Cetaceans The entirety of the cetaceans have a smoothed out body and adjustments for living in the water and never going onto land. But whales are warm blooded animals, not fish. They are identified with land well evolved creatures, for example, the hippopotamus. They are slid from land creatures that resembled a short-legged wolf. All cetaceansâ breathe air into their lungs as opposed to getting oxygen from water through gills.That implies they can suffocate in the event that they cannot surface to get air. They bring forth live youthful and medical caretaker them. They likewise can control their internal heat level and are warm-blooded. Sources: American Cetacean Society. 2004. ACS Cetacean Curriculum (Online), American Cetacean Society.Waller, Geoffrey, ed. SeaLife: A Complete Guide to the Marine Environment. Smithsonian Institution Press. Washington, D.C. 1996.

The Big Day is Here! - UGA Undergraduate Admissions

The Big Day is Here! - UGA Undergraduate Admissions The Big Day is Here! Yes, today is a big day, both for UGA and admissions. Fall classes begin today, and the campus is full of life (and full of students!). It is exciting to see all of the new and returning students on campus, and life is now back to normal. On the admissions side of things, the 2010 freshman application is now available! As I have said in the past, it is not important to be the first one to apply. UGA Admissions is not like Disney World; being first in line does not mean anything, and there is no FastPass option. But I know that everyone is happy to have the application up, both on our side and yours. The Foundation Fellowship/Bernard Ramsey Honors Scholarship application is also be available as of today. Good luck, and let us know if you have any questions!

Morality And Its Effect On Society - 1474 Words

Morality is compatible with politics, for it is the people who create politics and in them rest morals. Morality itself rest in the individual, and as such is interpreted in various ways; when put together it is only natural that the definition of morality as a whole is simplified and thus individual interpreting is compromise and also, a consensus is reached. As discussed in the â€Å"Apology† and elaborated in â€Å"Crito,† Socrates’ stance is moral in nature but is in line with politics, in relation to today’s issue of marriage equality; that is the law is made and must be obeyed and when you involve independent thinking the political sphere will begin to fall. For equal marriage in the US it is simply an understanding of what marriage is in the eyes of the government, and that is: a contract between two individuals who feel that a life, legally, together is beneficial to them in some ways. Morality is a personal idea of what is genuinely good and bad, (whereas ethics is concerned with how and in what way one acts) morality is in line with in what is good and bad for that person. This being the case, each individual is subject to two areas of acting, the first is morally or in themselves and the other is in the public realm, and thus who they understand what is good in themselves they will proceed to act in some way in the public realm. It is in the public realm where morality and politics collide, for the laws of the land are not always in sync with one’s own understanding ofShow MoreRelatedMorality And Its Effect On Society855 Words   |  4 Pagesacquire morality. Some say that morality is a learned behavior, and others contribute human morality to a view of fairness, or unfairness. I believe that morality is declining in our society, and its decline has a negative effect on society. Does the passing of time change morality or will society change with the passing of time? We can seek the answer to that question by e xploring different aspects of our society to determine if a decline of morality has any negative effect on our society. SpecificallyRead MoreMorality And Its Effect On Society1196 Words   |  5 PagesA utilitarian can prove that punishment is moral because it will reduce crime, it will give satisfaction to society, and it will deter other potential offenders. Punishment involves the deliberate infliction of suffering on an offender for a violation they caused such as a crime they did. Since punishment involves inflicting a pain or suffering to a criminal similar to an offender inflicts pain on his victim, it has generally been agreed that punishment requires moral justification. UtilitarianismRead MoreThe Effect Of Decaying Morality On Society934 Words   |  4 PagesThe Effect of Decaying Morality on Society The ability to distinguish between actions that are right or wrong, is an innate characteristic designed into every person. There are many scientific theories that attempt to explain how individuals acquire morality. Psychologist say that morality is a learned behavior, and others contribute human morality to a view of fairness, or unfairness. My point is, I believe that morality is declining in our society, and its decline has a negative effect on societyRead MoreSexual Morality And Its Effects On Society1796 Words   |  8 Pageswould provide complete information about all the aspects of sexual morality and would also elaborate why the impact of the same is negative or bad. Also, to support the conclusion, information would be phased after considering details from both online and outlines sources. As per the outflow of many types of research, each day the overall influencing power of sexual morality is increasing or enhancing making it tough for the society to go either in favo r or against it. Moreover, with the help of theRead MoreShould Law Improve Morality? Essay1291 Words   |  6 PagesIn â€Å"Should law improve morality?† Leslie Green argues, firstly, that law is capable of having causal impact on the nature of social morality and, secondly, that one of the functions of law should be the betterment of morality. In maintaining that the law ought to be intimately connected to morality, it appears as though Green is advocating for a modern version of the natural law perspective. After first giving an account of natural law, this paper will explicate Green s distinction between â€Å"ideal†Read MoreHow Technology Is Causing The Decline Of Morality1158 Words   |  5 Pagescentury, and with advances like cloning, society’s morality begins to be questioned. The film Blade Runner and short story â€Å"Margin of Error† bring up questions of morality related to technology, and I will use these works as reference to strengthen m y arguments. The continuous evolution of technology is causing the decline of morality in society. You do not have to look into the future to witness the effects of technology on morality, in fact you can look around the world today. The introductionRead MoreReview Of Legend By Marie Lu1391 Words   |  6 Pagesoften I have found that we grow to maturity not by doing what we like, but by doing what we should[..] not every ‘should’ is a compulsion, and not every ‘like’ is a high morality and true freedom.† Similarly in Marie Lu’s Legend, the main characters, June and Day struggle with their own morality, thus showing the audience the effect of compromise on the individual. Their struggles make them do immoral acts. June and Day do not follow the compulsions of ‘shoulds’ or ‘likes’, they show true freedomRead MoreMoral Development As Defined By Lawrence Kohlberg1018 Words   |  5 Pagesare sequential and remain consistent. According to Kohlberg level one is entitled Pre-conventional morality (pre-operational). In this level it consists of two stages: Stage One deals with punishment and obedience or how good or bad something may be. Stage two is instrumental purpose and exchange at this stage one is said to conform to seek satisfaction or praise. Level two is the Conventional morality level (concrete operational). The stages at this level include Stage Three: Mutual InterpersonalRead More The Separation of Church and State in America Should NOT Be Absolute 949 Words   |  4 PagesReligion is the most influential factor in human society. It is the core of our existence and has become a way of life in all cultures. The impact religion has had on the United States is overwhelming. This country was founded on the principle of Christianity. Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence, and James Madison articulated our countries constitution with the belief that the Christian faith would establ ish and govern this great society. Merriam-Websters online dictionary definesRead MoreReligion, Morality, And Atheism1734 Words   |  7 Pagesof religion, morality, and atheism. The true definition of religion is â€Å"an organized system of beliefs, ceremonies, and rules used to worship a god or group of gods.† Note that morality has the separate definition of â€Å"beliefs about what is right and wrong behavior† and the counterpart of religion is atheism, or the lack of the â€Å"belief in the existence of a deity or deities.† These definitions are crucial to objectively viewing each argument when answering whether religion’s effects on different culture’s

Henry Viii And Henry Vi Why Did Shakespeare Do This !

12/6/2014 Sasha Woods English 2B Ms. Carey Henry VIII and Henry VI: Why did Shakespeare do this!?! The Shakespearean playwrights, Henry VIII and Henry VI are portrayed as the most powerful and dominant king that ever ruled England. Then you take a look at these two kings real lives and it strikes mystery. What true? What not? What to believe, what not believe? Well in this book report, I will compare and contrast the playwrights that Shakespeare wrote, to there real lives. But first we have to go through a quick summary of each story, both of the kings real lives, and then why Shakespeare did this to these stories. You will be surprised at the things that these kings really did, and what Shakespeare did too. So, â€Å"To be, or not to be, that is the question!†- Hamlet, William Shakespeare Well lets start with Henry VIII. When the play begins, Duke of Buckingham put Cardinal Wolsey on trial for treason. Then they found out that actually that Duke of Buckingham was trying to take the throne from Henry VIII too and was sentence to death. Then Cardinal Wolsey had a house party and Henry VIII was in a disguise but Cardinal Wolsey seen right through it. That is when Henry VIII met Anne Boleyn at that party. Then every body heard about the divorce of Henry VIII s first wife Katherine of Aragon, but Henry VIII demoted her to â€Å"Princess Dowager†, but while they were still in the divorce process, he secretly got married to Anne Boleyn. Then he asked Cardinal Wolsey if he was trying toShow MoreRelatedGuess Paper of Class 1sy Year English1570 Words   |  7 PagesQuestions) Note: Attempt all questions from this section. Q.1:- Choose the correct answer for each from the given option: i) The scene of the play progress is in ___________ room. 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He would soon open the BlackfriarsRead MoreA Short History of Nearly Everything6112 Words   |  25 Pagesmade the discoveries, such as Edwin Hubble, Isaac Newton, and Albert Einstein. Background Bill Bryson wrote this book because he was dissatisfied with his scientific knowledge — that was, not much at all. He writes that science was a distant, unexplained subject at school. Textbooks and teachers alike did not ignite the passion for knowledge in him, mainly because they never delved in the whys, hows, and whens. It was as if [the textbook writer] wanted to keep the good stuff secret by making allRead MoreA Short History of Nearly Everything6112 Words   |  25 Pagesmade the discoveries, such as Edwin Hubble, Isaac Newton, and Albert Einstein. Background Bill Bryson wrote this book because he was dissatisfied with his scientific knowledge — that was, not much at all. He writes that science was a distant, unexplained subject at school. Textbooks and teachers alike did not ignite the passion for knowledge in him, mainly because they never delved in the whys, hows, and whens. It was as if [the textbook writer] wanted to keep the good stuff secret by making all ofRead MoreA Picatrix Miscellany52019 Words   |  209 Pagesthe Picatrix III. Excerpt from a Lecture on Alchemy by Terence McKenna On the Moon and the Lunar Mansions IV. Extracts on the Moon V. The Mansions of the Moon: â€Å"On the Creation, Proportion and Composition of the Heavens for the Fashioning of Images† VI. The Picatrix: Lunar Mansions in Western Astrology VII. W. B. Yeats and â€Å"A Vision:† The Arab Mansions of the Moon On Ritual and Talismans Picatrix Astrological Magic Aphorisms Extracts on Planetary Ritual Clothing Twenty Two Benefic Astrological TalismansRead MoreLogical Reasoning189930 Words   |  760 Pagesupdated: April 26, 2016 Logical Reasoning Bradley H. Dowden Philosophy Department California State University Sacramento Sacramento, CA 95819 USA ii iii Preface Copyright  © 2011-14 by Bradley H. Dowden This book Logical Reasoning by Bradley H. Dowden is licensed under a Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. That is, you are free to share, copy, distribute, store, and transmit all or any part of the work under the following conditions:Read MoreDeveloping Management Skills404131 Words   |  1617 Pages10/12 Weidemann-Book Credits and acknowledgments borrowed from other sources and reproduced, with permission, in this textbook appear on appropriate page within text. Copyright  © 2011, 2007, 2005, 2002, 1998 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Prentice Hall, One Lake Street, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458. All rights reserved. Manufactured in the United States of America. This publication is protected by Copyright, and permission should be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibitedRead MoreStephen P. Robbins Timothy A. Judge (2011) Organizational Behaviour 15th Edition New Jersey: Prentice Hall393164 Words   |  1573 PagesOrganizational Behavior This page intentionally left blank Organizational Behavior EDITION 15 Stephen P. Robbins —San Diego State University Timothy A. Judge —University of Notre Dame i3iEi35Bj! Boston Columbus Indianapolis New York San Francisco Upper Saddle River Amsterdam Cape Town Dubai London Madrid Milan Munich Paris Montreal Toronto Delhi Mexico City Sao Paulo Sydney Hong Kong Seoul Singapore Taipei Tokyo Editorial Director: Sally Yagan Director of Editorial Services:

A Cinematographic Vampire’s Tale Understanding the Symbolism Behind the Horror Icon Free Essays

Cinema is the place where we as viewers engage in sharing a collective dream. Certainly, horror movies enrich us as viewers with the most dream-like of plots. This is because they open a portal into another world where we are allowed to engage with our nightmares. We will write a custom essay sample on A Cinematographic Vampire’s Tale: Understanding the Symbolism Behind the Horror Icon or any similar topic only for you Order Now All over time various horror movies show us how normality is endangered by a monster, but the creature who has haunted the screen like no one is undoubtedly the Vampire. According to Ivan Phillips the figure of the Vampire has drifted and shifted through the pages of newspapers, travel journals, novels, poems, comics, and plays for 300 years, it has haunted cinema and television for almost a hundred, its shadow is creeping into the social, narrative and ludic networks of the digital’. The image of the Vampire is constantly present in the virtual and literature culture of the twenty-first century. Although this being moved from its folkloristic origins in which he appeared in works of J. Sheridan Le Fanu, John Polidori and Bram Stoker, the vampire still remains an iconic figure in Western Culture. This personage provides paradoxical fascination as it exists ‘at the edges of what is deemed normal, acceptable and safe, the vampire embodies the foreign and the unfamiliar’. Although, the vampire is often seen as a bringer of death, there are numerous metaphorical meanings and readings of this being. Through Marxist discourse the vampire is portrayed as the monster of monopoly capitalism and the agent of foreign ownership. This idea of the ‘bloodsucking capitalist’ is perceived in a negative way the Marxist community. In a xenophobic society this idea of the vampire embodies a general fear of the unfamiliar and may also constitute a racial difference. But the vampire not only represents the non-conformity it also alludes to an illicit desire. According to Jorg Waltje, this being is the embodiment of humanity’s ‘hopes and desires: beauty, strength, and immortality’. Although these elements do not express fear in the same way as the vampire’s link with death but in the same manner they express an external behaviour which puts at risk society’s stability. The vampire hints to a sense of ‘unsettlement’. Through his figure the viewer, in a quite troubled sense, comes face-to-face with the dramatization of humanity. As a creature, the vampire encompasses men’s vulnerability and his inability to alter the laws of time. As Sarah Sceats states ‘Vampires represent what we both fear and desire; they evoke a marginal world of darkness, secrecy, vulnerability, excess, and horror. Whatever they are, it is positively Other’. This notion of ‘excess’ was also tackled by Omar Calabrese in one of his chapters. According to Calabrese one could only escape from ‘a closed system’ through this notion of excess. The vampire represents this excess as he personifies ‘those aspects excluded or rejected by society, its existence in itself denotes excess’. In addition to this, Calabrese associates this vampiric excess to the exotic erotic which alludes to the scandal and breaks the boundaries of what is socially acceptable. In this sense the vampire’s bite is linked with the erotic. Further to this ‘explicit erotic act’ we have an unavoidable act with death. It was Bram Stoker which explored this notion in his novel Dracula. In the scene, where Lucy dies we see an excessive use of the erotic; ‘She seemed like a nightmare of Lucy as she lay there; the pointed teeth, the bloodstained, voluptuous mouth – which it made one shudder to see – the whole carnal and unspiritual appearance, seeming like a devilish mockery of Lucy’s sweet purity’. Through this, Bram Stolker illustrates us with an example of how death is linked to the erotic. The notion of ‘excess’ is repetitively used and reused by Stolker. In fact, he describes Lucy as a ‘nightmare †¦ hich it made one shudder to see’ As viewers, as film enthusiasts or as junkies of the silver screen, we have grown accustomed to think that nothing happens outside of the frame. Yet this idea seems to crumble to the ground when it comes to Dreyer’s, Vampyr. The latter haunts us with ‘a distinctly innerving sense of not knowi ng where anyone is, creating a feeling that anything culd be happening beyond the frame, in the ‘blind space’ in which the monsoter lurks’. Visually speaking, Vampyr resembles Jean Epstein’s La Chute de la Maison de Usher and Bunuel’s Un Chien Andalou. Dreyer’s horror movie encapsulates ‘clear moments of crossover between the two movements’. Therefore Vampyr distinguished itself from other movies of the same genre because of the various artistic influences which left their imprint. Comparison can also be drawn between more contemporary movies which are not necessarily classified under an artistic movement but which are still relevant to vampire studies. Coppola’s movie is separated by decades from its predecessors and is more straight forward in the narration of events. Visual metaphors are central to its filmic structure and the American director’s interpretation is completely submerged in blood, but while this film is heavily conditioned by an erotic element, the scenes of blood in Vampyr are scarce. The ‘spots of blood’ carry psychoanalytic connotations. Barbara Creed states that the manifestation of horror is culturally and socially constructed through the ‘images of blood, vomit, pus. shit etc’. These images emphasize a split between the law of the father and the maternal influence. This division has to be viewed under a pre-Oedipal line of thought. In this stage there is a fierce attachment to the maternal figure. In Dreyer’s vampire movie, blood is linked to the maternal entity because Chopin ‘punctuates the flesh and transgresses the sanctity of the body’. Another overwhelming point stated by Creed is that the female vampire does not limit herself to mutating her victims into creatures which are one with the night. Her victims are testimony of the vampire’s ability to destabilize ‘traditional gender definitions’. Although lesbian connotations are often attributed to this particular flick, there is no real intimacy between Leon and Chopin. The scene in which Chopin ‘feeds’ upon her young prey, does not communicate a sense of desire. The village doctor who is at the service of Chopin, does not coincide with the medical man who represents a positive force in the traditional gothic horror narrative. In Coppola’s Dracula, based on Bram Stocker’s novel, Van Helsing is an educated individual and an adversary to the malevolent vampire. The doctor ‘sucks’ the blood from the living thanks to the transfusion equipment just as Chopin uses fangs. The victim of the doctor’s bloodsucking, artificial technique is Gray. He is the character who often looks at the actions taking place by standing behind doors or windows; ‘he is an outsider peering in’. In fact, Gray is removed from the narrative action even as he witnesses the first death. David Bordwell believed that Gray ‘is a curious character’ and he is more of a mediator than a provocateur of action. However, Gray still ‘possesses an active and enunciating gaze’. This male character’s progress is often hindered by other characters, by the props and also by buildings. What is so overwhelming about Vampyr is the collision between reality and the supernatural. Everything seems to take place within a dream-like state and the movie is ‘ephemeral, polysemic and shifting, provoking opinion and polarising debate’. The movie afflicts the viewer with dissonance and discomfort, especially when our gaze meet Chopin’s stare as Gray is sealed in the coffin. The latter is an artefact which shares an endless tradition with the general notion of vampirism. It is the space where these beings retreat and hide away from the daylight. The coffin is the body-fitting box where Dracula and Count Orlock patiently wait their time to rise while the vessel is sailing. This tomb or repository is ‘the most vampiric of all enclosure’. Gray finds himself trapped in a coffin and at this point in the movie’s chronology, ‘the spectatorial gaze is doubly trapped, within the confines of a sealed coffin and the immovable dead body’. As the coffin containing Gray’s corpse is being carried away, the procession passes next to Gray’s unconscious body. In Vampyr, the element of the doppelganger has a heavy resonation. Vampyr is venerated amongst lovers of the genre even though movie makers throughout those years did not have the present technological resources. Old, BW, silent movies may seem alien in form and content to younger generations, yet what some of these past flicks embody inextinguishable artistic and human values. We’ve already drawn remarks on Coppola’s remake of Bram Stocker’s narrative work into film. Long before the release of this movie, ‘the most haunting of any attempt to dramatize Bram Stocker’s novel’ was Murnau’s Nosferatu. There is a strong resemblance between Murnau’s vampire and the one lurking in the book. What is it that viewers find so terrifying about Nosferatu? Is it the vampire’s appearance and inhuman gestures? Does he embody the general notion that â€Å"we fear whatever we cannot explain or understand through rational thinking†? As consumers, for there is no better way to call genuine movie enthusiasts, we ought to dig deeper and deeper into the sequence of images. Most of the time denotations come with connotations and it is up to us to fish out such hidden meanings. The imagery in Murnau’s movie suggests the concept of repression and ‘the arch is a visual leit motif in the film’. Arches and similar structures try to stop the vampire from emerging. Count Orlock is therefore a repressed force who is also linked to Jonathan via these same arches. In a memorable scene in the movie, the Count emerges from under an arch and Jonathan from another as they meet for the first time. Jonathan is also linked to the menacing creature through the house which stands on the opposite side to his. Count Orlock purchases this house, thus becoming the young man’s reflection. Jonathan is a loving companion to Nina while Nosferatu becomes a ‘demonic alternative husband’. Nosferatu contains numerous references to ‘a number of traditional or cultural elements’. Myths about Persephone and Orpheus also produce an echoing effect through this vampire movie. Nosferatu was not meant to float in its own air bubble, separated from all other influences and ideas. Murnau transfuses into the motion picture ‘the product of a synthesis’. This adaptation of Dracula, which donated to all lovers of the horrific this ‘thin, repulsively bald’ being, dates back to ‘the heyday of expressionist fantasy’. What come into collision are the natural and the fantastic. These two distant realms are central to Nosferatu yet neither dominates the film. The viewer cannot but notice the obsession with filing space and the ‘obrusive sets’. Like Tabu, Nosferatu is primarily set in natural surroundings and both of Murnau’s movies deal with a menace. The latter diffuses into an ordinary world and out of a fantastic, paranormal world. Nosferatu portrays an animal-like being (a mixture between a rat and a human skeleton) who is ‘constantly associated with nature throughout the film’. Even Count Orlok’s movements does not coincide with those of a human being , in fact even his castle ‘is like a natural continuation of the rock’ thus the true protagonist in Nosferatu is Nature which is closely linked with its natural settings. In Nosferatu, Murnau used a sort of trick photography also with expressionist angle shots. As Gilberto Perez Guillermo suggests these specific techniques are used to illustrate a remote, fragmented and bizarre environment. Nosferatu is generally seen from distance and this gives us the impression that the nocturnal creature is merging itself with the surrounding nature. Murnau succeeded into creating an iconic- power image through which he shows Nosferatu as ‘seemingly immensely tall’. In particular the scene where the vampire is standing on the deck of the vessel which is no longer conducted by a human being. Murnau makes also the use of the negative image, this technique is ideal to express ‘mystery, fantasy, and unreality’. This negative image basically involves an X-ray photograph, in this film it was used when Jonathan was being carried into ‘the land of phantoms’ in Count Orlock’s weird carriage. The three movies which have been discussed so far are all based on similar, if not identical, themes. In each case the relationship between the female character and the parasite represented by the vampire is at the heart of the movie’s plot. Guillermo del Toro took on a different approach and directed a vampire movie which derailed from the norm set up by the previously discussed films. Narrative-wise, Cronos ignores the myth of the Count and focuses on a device that causes transformations to take place within the main character’s physique. The Cronos looks like an insect which shares some sort of a mutual parasitic relationship with its victim. Apart from a different take on the blood-sucking creature’s myth, Cronos proposes characters which are marked by an ‘implied absence’. Del Toro’s movie might ‘represent a nostalgic look at the past’ in the sense that the long-gone years receive a corporeal dimension belonging to the present. The main character in this Mexican Gothic is a perfect illustration of this notion. Jesus Gris is the ‘purveyor of antiques and guardian of the new dawn’ the latter being Aurora. What distinguishes Jesus Gris with Dieter de la Guardia, the dying industrialist who is aware of the Cronos’ true nature and powers are there past scars which must be dealt with in modern times. On the one hand the ‘scars’ of Jesus are related to family life while on the other Dieter de la Guardia is at the mercy of an ailing health. Above all else, the Cronos is a ‘fascinating hybrid of science and nature’ and the golden case is said to hold an insect which lives off human blood. In return the creature rejuvenates its bearer and prolongs his life, killing off the threat posed by ‘corruptible, material flesh’. The device is needed by de la Guardia because it surpasses the technology of modern times. Only the Cronos can achieve what technology has failed in. There also lies a fine parallelism between de la Guardia and the angel’s statue. The man’s body is full of holes just like the archangel’s interior which is infested by cockroaches and if the statue reminds us of the divine, the deteriorating human body indicates an inevitable ending. Erotism is a stranger to the film’s plot, yet del Toro’s work delves into universal dreams, such as eternal youth and the conflict between life and death. Jesus caries the device while de la Guardia holds the instructions; Jesus is the unsuspecting individual who comes across an artifact of mysterious powers and who ends owning itself to it. The Cronos dehumanizes him and his need for human blood becomes more prominent as the film unfolds. Just as the insect feeds upon the blood of the device’s holder, the latter ends up developing an appetite for human blood. Viewers have grown accustomed to having a female figure within vampire stories. Whether the woman is a prey, a victim or an object of desire, she has been instrumental to Dracula’s and Vampyr’s storyline. In Cronos, Aurora ‘plays the role of the love interest for which the monster must make his sacrifice’. Transformation and shifting of form does not limit itself to Jesus’ metamorphosis, but it also manifests itself in the relationship between the vampire and the female figure. The erotism is replaced by an ‘innocent, filial love’. Contrasting and comparing characters and plots allows us to point out what is present in one movie and absent in another. Some characters from different filmic works may share the same attributes or characteristics, while others may interpret the same role but in a totally different manner. The so-called â€Å"assistant†, the faithful follower who is at the service of his master, is present in all four films discussed so far. However Angel, the nephew of de la Guardia, is not as submissive as Renfield and the village doctor. Angel’s mode of thinking is simply capitalistic. He yearns for his uncle’s wealth and represents the ‘cynical angel’. In contemporary popular culture the power of the vampire’s bite did not vanish but in some manner it did change. We can see this notion through the creation of diverse pop culture vampires such as Angel and Spike in the series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003). These modern vampires have been ‘desexualized and de-victimized’ because they only obtain and drink blood from butchers. Now the vampire is made more human and this highlights the fact that contemporary vampires have a more mundane appearance. In the new millennium the vampire seemed to have changed from a creature of fear to a creature of ‘sympathy and emulation’. This is made more evident in online discourse about the vampire. As argued by Mary Williamson in her book Lure of the Vampire, in the virtual world the vampire is perceived as a ‘forgivable outcast’ and thus we sympathize with him. In Facebook, a social network used by millions in the world the presence of this being is very strong. Through one particular application called Vampire application we see several imitations of the ‘folkloric tradition of the vampire’. This application is diffused from one user to another via a ‘virtual bite’. During this process a user is sent an invitation to enrol himself to such application, were the user gets to interact with other individuals who share their interest and curiosities about this subject. Users get to fight other vampires, fill their hunger or feed upon weaker vampires. Once cravings for this so called ‘virtual-violence’ are stated by many, users can also send gestures such as hugs to their nearest companions. Feeding and fighting are the highlight of this application were vampires get points and money for doing so which than they can be exchanged for weapons or to improve their senses or powers . In this application placing someone in a suit will result in losing all their fights for two consecutive days, which is quite a deal breaker. This application also embraces violence amongst friends. Some of the many options this application boasts are the way one can attack another throughout the Facebook community. This application is filled with the erotic; this notion solidifies the ‘traditional elements of the transgressive vampire’. At each and every single level the vampire’s abilities achieves a new rank and this creates a new type of vampire. As noticed by Mary Williamson in the virtual world this being is not perceived as an ‘outcast’ but rather a fundamental figure through which players communicate. In the online world the vampires have become a part of a different ritual, a social ritual by which relationships and friendships are maintained and expanded’. In this application, what used to frighten about this creature is eliminated and instead it is accepted. In fact, with the loss of penetration of the bite the vampire is ‘de-sexualized and sanitized’. Accordi ng to Calabrese, the vampire represents only a slight alteration beyond what is socially accepted and thus it represents; the shifting of limits. ‘When confronted by an ‘acceptable’ excess, the limit is simply moved (perhaps to a considerable distance) in order to absorb it’. When in the virtual world, elements like blood and the penetration of the bite are removed ‘the virtual vampire becomes the monster that is us’. In the twentieth century, sympathy for this being has grown bigger. In fact as stated by Williamson, this being has generated new implications and attitudes ‘towards the ‘self ’ in the twentieth century’. There is a great desire to imitate the vampire not as a rebellious figure but rather to imitate a ‘bohemian outsiderdom which locates the individual as the desirable outsider, the sympathetically alienated’. In the virtual context perception of the self becomes ‘fluid and flexible’. As it is no longer linked with the body but it is highly linked with the fulfilment of desires. In this sense identity is constructed as one desires. The virtual identity can be understood through the Lancian psychoanalytic theory. ‘In the online world the virtual identity is not reflected but is rather constructed; the subject is not created in the reflection but rather in the digital composite’. This leads us to do a parallelism between the vampire and the virtual identity. According to Shannon Winnubst, the site represents the mirror reflection in which an individual forms and constructs his ideas about the self. On the other hand the vampire ‘in lacking a mirror reflection, does not even register on the radar of identity-formation: he does not have the necessary condition for the possibility of becoming a subject’. Also Rhonda Wilcox explored this theme using the imaginative Id and the Jungian shadow. According to Wilcox the online body represents the negative aspect of one’s personality. In this manner the vampire is portrayed as the doppelganger of the victim before it was biten. Stoker’s Lucy and Angel in Buffy are the perfect examples, Stoker’s Lucy from chaste to ripely erotic, or perhaps the souled and soulless incarnations of Angel in Buffy – so too does the virtual body provide opportunity for the vampiric shadow to find form in cyberspace. As stated by Wilcox, the imaginative Id illustrates the unconscious which is repressed and which encourages the pre-vampiric identity to free itself. In this sense online where the personality is fluid the wishes of the Id can be fulfilled as there are no repercussions which constitute some sort of restriction in the corporeal world. When talking about horror movies there is a subtle difference between the onster and the human being. But as indicated in films by Dreyer, Murnau, Coppola and Guillermo del Toro a strong link exists between the two beings. The myth and the vampire have always been subjects of debates. Although there are number of similarities and differences between Vampyr and Nosferatu yet both films show us the vampire as being more than just a b lood sucking, nocturnal creature but it is also the representation of the darkest corners of the human psyche ‘For this is one of the functions of our monsters: to help us constrict our own humanity, to provide guidelines against which we can define ourselves’. How to cite A Cinematographic Vampire’s Tale: Understanding the Symbolism Behind the Horror Icon, Papers

Tyranny of Teams free essay sample

Some alternative perspectives on team behaviour elucidate the ways in which the prevailing paradigm ultimately hinders groups and tyrannizes the individual team member mdash; by camouflaging coercion and conflict with the appearance of consultation and cohesion. Examination of the limits and effects of the ideology provide the basis for an alternative understanding of the strengths, constraints and complexities of group work. Introduction Teams in various forms have become ubiquitous ways of working. As task forces, committees, work groups and quality circles, they are used to provide leadership, accomplish research, maximize creativity and operationalize structural flexibility (Peters and Waterman 1982; Payne The 1988) . prescriptions of much contemporary management thinking are based on a dominant ideology of teamwork. While teams have been narrowly construed as a tool of the Organization Development Model, the ideology is much more pervasive. Teams are embraced as tools of diverse models of organizational reform from organization development (Dunphy 1976) to work restructuring (Poza and Markus 1980), from quality management to industrial democracy and from corporate culture and Japanese management approaches to complex contingency prescriptions. We will write a custom essay sample on Tyranny of Teams or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page 611 Beliefs about the benefits of teams occupy a central and unquestioned place in organizational reform. It is all the more surprising that, despite some differences in context, the team ideology has been espoused with such consistency. The hegemony of this ideology has been supported by researchers who offer the ’team’ as a tantalizingly simple solution to some of the intracDownloaded from http://oss. sagepub. com at Massey University Library on June 28, 2010 612 problems of organizational life. Teams appear to satisfy everything individual needs (for sociability, self-actualization, participative management), organizational needs (for productivity, organizational development, effectiveness) and even society’s needs for alleviating the malaise of alienation and other by-products of modern industrial society (Johnson and Johnson 1987). However, do work groups deserve the status they have acquired as multipurpose panaceas for organizational problems? As has been powerfully argued in organizational analysis (Burrell and Morgan 1979; Astley and Van de Ven 1983; Reed 1985; Alvesson 1987), the dominance of a particular paradigm has substantial costs in the institutionalization of table at once: mechanisms of control. The purpose of this article is to scrutinize the ideological basis of the prevailing team paradigm. Four sets of assumptions which underpin the ideology are identified: 1. Narrowly conceived definitions of work groups and group work are based on the assumption that mature teams are task-oriented, and have successfully minimized corruption by other group impulses. 2. It is an individual motivation formula and a ’unitary view’ of organizations which assumes confluence, not conflict, between individual, group and organizational goals (Burrell and Morgan 1979: 204). 3. Simplistic views of the superiority of participative leaders are held. 4. The views are also held that power, conflict and emotion are subversive forces which divert groups from work. Research from some alternative critical, psychoanalytic and other perspectives is used to suggest some areas in which the paradigm requires overhaul. A premise of this paper is that teams can contribute to getting work of all kinds done, but not when their application is informed by a narrow framework that nurtures inappropriate expectations. Further, and more critically, the team ideology embraced by these assumptions tyrannizes because, under the banner of benefits to all, teams are frequently used to camouflage coercion under the pretence of maintaining cohesion; conceal conflict under the guise of consensus; convert conformity into a semblance of creativity; give unilateral decisions a co-determinist seal of approval; delay action in the supposed interests of consultation; legitimize lack of leadership; and disguise expedient arguments and personal agendas. Definitions of Teams and Group Work theorists have defined a ’team’ as a distinctive class of which is more task-oriented than other groups, and which has a set group, of obvious rules and rewards for its members (Adair 1986). According to this view, high-performing teams substitute collective goals and an inter- Management Downloaded from http://oss. sagepub. com at Massey University Library on June 28, 2010 613 est in the task at hand for individual agendas and inter-personal conflicts. Group theorists have noted the parallels between therapeutic groups and other types of work groups (Foulkes 1964: 110). However, the emphasis of team ideology on the task-orientation of teams has tended to idealize and resist recognizing that groups with a task still experience anti-task behaviour, and indeed have much in common with other types of groups. Seeking to understand both individual and group work, researchers have, on the whole, been dogged by the search for discrete or measurable outputs of work. Work has many forms. Some definitions of individual ’performance’ and ’effectiveness’ in administrative and managerial (Likert 1967; Sorenson 1971) with creativity and innovation in research or scientific contexts (Gordon 1961; Sch6n 1963), yet such experimental measures often seem to bear little resemblance to individual experiences of work (Terkel 1974) . Efforts to define group work by researchers in the team ideology tradition have produced a range of measures referring either to the output or to the quality of group process.