What I immediately noticed about Colson Whitehead’s Zone One is his use of kairotic time similar to what we had read in “The Albertine Notes”. However, unlike “The Albertine Notes,” the use of kairotic time is easier to follow in Zone One. There is no concept of chronological time in “The Albertine Notes”; instead days are marked by events such as before Albertine or after the blast. In Zone One, events still play a big role in marking time, but there is still a sense of chronology. Whitehead emphasizes the before and after by adding a sense of nostalgia of New York pre-apocalypse.
Category Archives: Cialina Ngo
Nuke York and Post-9/11
In class, we have talked so much about the secular apocalypse recently in class. Usually, we attribute the secular apocalypse to technology or disease. I never really thought about anything else that we could attribute to a modern-day secular apocalypse until now. During last class, I mentioned that it was still too early to tell what secular apocalypse story plagued our generation. But I think that Broderick and Jacobs have the answer for me. Their essay was quite convincing: we are living in a society where post-9/11 apocalyptic stories dominate our culture. Similar to the effect of the Cold War on the apocalypse narrative, I do agree with Broderick and Jacobs that 9/11 is permeating our apocalyptic narrative. Continue reading
Gender Roles in 28 Days Later
I thought that the article we had to read today about the three films was very interesting because it is very similar to what I want to write about for my final paper. The film I thought of the most was 28 Days Later because of the similarities to The Walking Dead. Continue reading
Strozier and Heaven’s Gate
Based on the Strozier readings, I can make sense of how Marshall Applewhite (Do) was able to gain a following for Heaven’s Gate. Applewhite has all of the elements that the authors believe is required for a charismatic leader for a fundamentalist group.
Applewhite presents himself as a messianic in his Introduction in the Heaven’s Gate website. After watching the video that Amy posted, I wouldn’t say that he is the best speaker but I still think that he manages to come across as charismatic. Hoffer argues that “the effectiveness of a leader is dependent on his self-confidence rather than his message.” Applewhite relays his message with his strong personality and conviction in his initiation video, so I think that the video is an effective way to influence new followers.
Thoughts on The Albertine Notes
The first thing that I noticed when I started reading “The Albertine Notes” was that time was measured kairotically. Time is not measured, but marked by events:
- Before Albertine
- After the blast
The use of kairotic time is justified by the fact that people want to hold on to their memories after an apocalyptic event. By using Albertine, they are able to hold on to memories and by doing so their perception of time becomes altered from chronologic to kairotic. Kevin knows the concept of chronological time (p. 158), but it seems that he no longer understands it. He cannot tell whether two days or two weeks have passed. Because no significant event had happened to mark the time, time has just simply passed without any kind of measurement.
Book of Revelation and the Fundamentalist Mindset
Strozier makes an interesting argument regarding time in Chapter Ten. According to Strozier, there are two kinds of time: chronological and kairotic. Kairotic is a qualitative measure of time, which is uneven and weighted in value and marked by one’s experiences. Strozier argues that the Book of Revelation marks time kairtoically because time switches back and forth from past to present.
One quote in this chapter that really stood out to me was: “An important consequence psychologically but also politically is to free fundamentalists from an obligation to the actual past and present, that is, the world as we know it. They are defined spiritually and ethically only by their relation to an imagined future.” This quote made me think about our past discussions on born-again Christians and how it was possible for them to live a pure life, even if their past life had been full of sin. With a kairotic mindset of time, the past becomes irrelevant when there is only the future to think about.
Another interesting dualism that Strozier presents in this chapter is the dualism behind evil: Evil is something that fundamentalists condemn but also embrace. They condemn sin and lead pure lives, but according to Strozier it is something that they also embrace because “it confirms their persecution and certainty of redemption.” It seems really un-Christian for a group to wish for sin and evil among others just so that it will cement their standing of purity. Furthermore, it was even more disturbing to hear a lack of sympathy for sinners.
I think that the most powerful section of Strozier’s tenth chapter is “Seven: Redemption”. In this section, Strozier has presented a dualism that the Book of Revelation can be used for good but it can also be used for evil. It was surprising to me that it has inspired others to promote positive social change. I guess when I think about the Book of Revelation, I always think of fundamentalists groups. I think that Strozier makes such a powerful statement when he says: “But it is frankly disturbing to witness the current uses of the text by privileged white Americans. There is great potential for violence when the ruling class feels victimized.”
Weekly Response #7: Glorious Appearing and the Fundamentalist Mindset
Initially, it was hard for me to follow Glorious Appearing and it took me a while to realize that this was the twelfth book of the series. I ended up looking up the series to get more sense of the characters and the backstory that I had missed because we had not read the first 11 books in the Left Behind series. Compared to The Rapture, I felt like Glorious Appearing was definitely a more intricate and faithful interpretation of the Book of Revelation and the Apocalypse. Continue reading
The Rapture: Weekly Response #6
The Rapture is not the best example of an apocalyptic film, but I still did see some familiar themes that we have previously discussed during class in the film.
For example, like John in the Book of Revelation, the main character Sharon abandons her life full of sex and sin and claims it dirty. She goes through purification to cleanse herself by washing her sheets and taking a shower. When she gets out of the shower, she clothes herself in clean white linen, just as some of the pure characters dressed in the Book of Revelation (examples: 19.8 & 19.14).
There is also the theme of waiting for the Apocalypse to come throughout the film. Like in the Book of Revelation, there is no distinct date of the Apocalypse. Sharon and her daughter are constantly waiting in the desert for the Apocalypse to come. Their prophet had not given them an exact day of judgment.
Of course, while there are some themes that resonate throughout the film, The Rapture, like most of my classmates pointed out, there are even more inconsistencies. For example, John’s dislike of women in the Book of Revelation made me question the use of a female protagonist instantly. If this film was based on the Book of Revelation, I saw no hope at all for Sharon. Despite the fact that she renounced her old lifestyle, I do not think that John would think her worthy of being saved because of her previous promiscuity. John already does not favor women, but the fact that Sharon is neither pure nor a virgin does not put her in an agreeable position. Though there are some apocalyptic themes in The Rapture, it is still not the best example of a film that uses themes from the Book of Revelation.
Weekly Response #5: Watchmen
This was my first time reading Watchmen so Elizabeth Rosen’s reading was extremely helpful. I noticed how intricate the graphic novel was while I was reading and the Rosen reading helped me pick out all the details that I missed. Many of what Rosen points out are details I questioned, but they never really made sense to me overall.
Weekly Response #4 – Elizabeth Rosen
I quite liked Elizabeth Rosen’s explanation for the modern day fascination with the apocalypse and their post-modern adaptations. She provides a convincing argument about how people turned to the apocalyptic myth during the second half of the 20th-century because of several historic events after World War II. Just from reading her arguments on how secular adaptations of the apocalypse have managed to still retain even the religious motifs, I could already come up with examples in film and literature.
