Summary and Response to a Critical Article

The article I have chosen to respond to is The (Super)Marketplace of Images: television as unmediated mediation in DeLillo's White Noise by John N. Duvall. (written in 1994)

This was quite the article. He made points I wouldn't have thought of making based on the texts he incorporated. So, basically what his whole article was about was how there was this idea of facism that was placed in this book. This idea of fascism was overthrown by post modernity. He is making the arguement for this happening - fascism being overthrown by post modernity. Near the end of the article he says this, "...fascism is diffused throughout American mass media and its representations (451)". This shows exactly what his whole article was about. He brought up points about how the Gladney's lives revolved around television, and they felt lost without it. The Gladney's were living off credit. Everything was aesthetic, only for looks, and not as beneficial as other things could have been. He talks a lot about how the way that the Gladney's were living, and really everyone in Iron City, is all about what they can get to please themselves, and most of that comes from the media that is always around them, nonstop.

My response..
I learned a lot about White Noise, like I said before, he connected things I wouldn't have thought to connect (which happens quite often to me really). However, the main thing that I learned about White noise through this article was that it really is about showing a new perspective on things. DeLillo went into this essay trying to show that the world is not all about fascism, and America is really becoming dulled from that through our media. I understood that media was a big part of this book, I just didn't link that to it being a way of showing what America is NOT and how it is slowly becoming more and more not a fascist place. Fascism is really the opposite of the post modernity that Duvall and DeLillo were talking about and it makes sense how they both pointed that out and how Duvall backed that up.

:)

Citation
       Duvall, John N. The (SUPER)MARKETPLACE OF IMAGES: TELEVISION AS INMEDIATED MEDIATION IN DeLILLO'S WHITE NOISE. White Noise. New York City: Penguin Group, 1998. 432-55. Print.

White Noise Response

You can click the top right corner and zoom it in, since I know it is a tad small :)

Mid-Term Check In

Dear Mrs. Cline, 

This class has been quite the roller coaster for me.  The biggest challenge that I have had so far is figuring out how to put my point of view into the analysis of these pieces. I know that they are analysis' and the whole point of them is to stay unbiased but how I write my paper, and how you have asked us to, is to formulate our own point of view. So, putting that into my paper but still sounding unbiased in my text is what has been the biggest challenge so far. My biggest success is that I have actually had to plan these essays. Before this class, I would just wing it, and not have any plan. However, with the type of papers we are writing I really have to study the text and formulate my thesis around the text and not based of my own intuition completely. 

The readings in this class have definitely affected me. They have caused me to think about what it would have been like during the time that they were wrote but also how they would relate to this day and age. Even though I don't agree with the last one we read, "The Modest Proposal", that doesn't change the fact that it was revolutionary during that time and still can be considered that. 

Literary analysis is different from the other types of writing I have done in college in that I have to look at the text for answers, its not just my own knowledge of what I can gather from the story. I have to analyze (go figure!) the text to find out what it is talking about rather than the whole picture. 

My goals for the second half is to continue to enhance my writing up to par. I hope to improve in my use of words and grammar and eloquence. I want to be able to use my words to create images, even in a literary analysis. 

I am excited for what the rest of this semester holds and how it is going to challenge and grow my writing abilities and ways of thinking about literature. 

Sincerely, 

Elizabeth London

Tentative Thesis Paragraph

Jonathan Swift by Charles Jervas

        Well, this is going to be an interesting essay. I am not overly thrilled by the text that it is about.. That text is "A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift. It is the craziest "proposal" (maybe not as crazy as this!) in my opinion. Anyway, here is my introductory paragraph for my rhetorical essay for this text. 

    Have you ever considered eating a baby for food? Jonathan Swift proposed that this was the way to overcome the problem of overpopulated poor people in his society of Scotland. Some may say this is wrong. Some may actually entertain the thought. The audience was the rich who despised the poor and didn’t want them overpopulating their society. They were the people Swift was trying to get the attention of and they would take this in those two ways. The whole reason he wrote “The Modest Proposal” the way he did was to over exaggerate the overpopulation and to give a satirical way to solve that problem. Swift’s proposal was ineffective in persuading his audience because it was too satirical, overlooking the real problem, and playing it down as if it wasn’t a problem.