Although my research paper ended up showing that media developed for Fundamentalist Christian Children is far more complicated than my initial reaction to the pieces provided, it’s difficult not to take a first look at such work and be overwhelmed by its literary shortcomings. Continue reading
Author Archives: Danielle Gold
Revelation at the Schoolhouse: Danielle Gold Creative Project
The Stratemeyer Syndicate produced and sold millions of mystery books for children between the 1920’s and the 1960’s. They are best known for creating and distributing classics like Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, The Bobbsey Twins and The Happy Hollisters, but not every one of their creations achieved commercial success. Mary Lou arrived on the scene in the mid-60’s, long after the Girl-Detective trend had lost stream. Criticized for being too dated and too modern at the same time, the series was discontinued after the first three volumes sold less than four hundred copies combined. Due to its rarity, the books are highly valued by the modern collector. I was fortunate enough to come across a tattered copy of Revelations at the Schoolhouse while cleaning out my grandparents’ vacation home. Although its possible that I am missing parts, I have transcribed what I found to the best of my ability and uploaded it to the Internet for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!
-Danielle Gold
You Call This A Doomsday Cult?
http://www.theonion.com/articles/you-call-this-a-doomsday-cult,10783/?ref=auto
This Onion Open-Ed references Jonestown and provides interesting commentary on cult patterns so I thought that I would share it with you all.
The Everyman and the Apocalypse
I hate to admit that I didn’t do this week’s reading, especially given that I love novels and was looking forward to “real zombies” making their appearance in this course. Even though I swear that I grabbed “Zone One” on my first trip to grab stuff from Brookdale, I can’t find it in that suitcase. I would have emailed Professor Quinby, if not for my sad habit of waiting to the last possible minute to work. I hope to read it sometime following my return to Brookdale. Until then I can only theorize on what happened in the book based on reviews, both on Amazon and from professionals and the excerpt at Amazon.com.
Zombies are a popular metaphor for brainwashed masses. Zombification results in the sense of homogeneity that some argue is found in embracing popular culture and incorporating mass expectation into one’s life style. Thus I found it interesting that the narrator of Zone One, a person that has apparently outlived the existence of life as we know it, introduce himself as unremarkably common even as he heads out on a noteworthy mission. The average person is capable of overcoming adversity and adapting to new situations. This sort of higher sense of activity or awareness and/or ascension to a higher plain under a religious leader is a fairly big part of why some people fantasize about the end of time. People want to believe that they are important, even if they do not seem exceptional. However, the existence of zombies show that mass lifestyle changes can be problematic if people cannot recognize themselves.I believe the zombie is a personal apocalypse that plays out in the public sphere, affecting the masses both with and without the central demon’s consent. Perhaps, this is what makes zombies, with their obvious losses, a post-apocalyptic staple, both in movies and in video games.
Nuclear Suburbia
I found the online “Nuke York, New York” article fascinating especially as someone that considers herself a New Yorker, an a person that has been displaced from the city in the face of natural disaster. It was somewhat nice to see that the correlation between New York and fictional apocalypse depictions was more than my keeping my eyes open for my hometown, and interesting to see how 9/11 and Hiroshima imagery combined in the public psyche.
Somewhere Outside the Apocalypse
Although Christian belief mandates that a world without the sense of a Apocalyptic setting with exist after the events occur and is the survivors’ reward for enduing tribulation, in order to hold believers accountable for keeping within the prefered behavior patterns, the modern apocalypse movies we viewed for Tuesday’s class suggest that (relatively) calm worlds might exist alongside places of conflict, most likely so we relate to the actions of survivors and possibly keep with the filmmakers’ preferred behavior patterns.
As Professor Quinby noted in her paper, this, like in the Bible, is mostly shown at the story’s end. In 28 Days Later, this is shown in the shape of the house in the hills and the possible rescue by a passing plane. In Apocalypto, this is Jaguar Paw’s new home in the woods and the ships on the horizon. In Children of Men, this is the Human Project’s boat, however it was for a time Jim’s home. Although there was a shown struggle to get to these spots by the protagonists, there is an audience understanding that these settings are manmade, that they existed before during and after the movies’ timeframe and that presence of these settings are at odds with the world’s end.
We live in such settings and as Albert noted, relatability is everything in for-profit media. (It’s difficult to share or rewatch/reread a movie or a novel that we do not enjoy or understand.) I think that a major component of apocalyptic fiction which destroys part of “another world” is to make us more aware of humanity’s current struggles.
Aesthetics of the Apocalypse
Although I started my studying with the Fundamentalist Mindset readings, my first reaction upon looking at the Heaven’s Gate website was that it was a complete eyesore and that difficult to understand because of reasons unrelated to content. The bright colored fonts were hard to read on a patterned background. Although the HTML and graphics were par for the course for late nineties web design, odd embellishments do not enhance the credibility of the site’s creators. Yet it does remind me of something made by someone with as little attachment to earthly possessions as the mission statement claims. It is a recruitment tool, but there is something about this page that seeks to separate Heaven’s Gate from the masses that would criticize its workings and motives.
For those that are curious, results of the readability tests at http://juicystudio.com/services/readability.php place the Heaven’s Gate website homepage http://www.heavensgate.com/index.html#keys somewhere between Time and the Wall Street Journal, at roughly the 6th grade level. Srrody’s Earth exit statement is considered by the program calculator to be simpler than the homepage, but Glonody’s is more complex. I think that this seems to confirm the idea that a fundimentalist ideal being ever present and also so abstract that only the “right people” can be smart enough to understand/believe it and that they feel themselves to be alien from the “they” by the nature of having greater understanding. Certain Apocalyptic ideas are, as the result of a paranoid makers’ insanity, an subconscious attempt to be distance oneself from a more mainstream other while forming a familiar supportive group.
I found Strozier’s discussion for a need for a religious conversion to apocalyptic imagery in Chapter 4 especially interesting. Conversion imagery is seen as a tool to unite the split self by offering something familiar and concrete.
I wonder how a graphic designer’s reprensentation (or an artistic outside observer like Dave Gibbons or Michal Tolkin) of apocalyptic fundamentalists’ mind relates to the media that they create themselves.
Drugs, Personal Apocalypses and Large Scale Destruction
Religion is the opiate of the masses.
– Karl Marx
I love how Rick Moody’s Albertine Notes mentions in passing the bombing of half of a large portion of the city and the corruption of its water supply, weighing them against one another, but instead focus’ primarily on the dangers of mass drug use and the impact of that on the city. Continue reading
Fundamentalist Mindset and Cities
In spite of all I read about the idea of a New Jerusalem and the strong understanding of how apocalyptic belief affects modern politics granted by my reform Jewish background, I expected a modern fundamentalist writing like “Glorious Appearing” to be an attack on cities and large groups of people gathering in urban spaces. Continue reading
Painting the Fourth Wall
As Cialina has already noted, I found Elizabeth Rosen’s Moore study is incredibly helpful for those learning to critically interpret graphic novels. However I also felt that reading Moore and having one of Rosen’s recent primary sources at hand, made understanding her book easier. While there are other factors that could contribute to my level of understanding, I found chapter one much easier to get through than last week’s prologue.
