Week 10 Journal Response. 3/26/2018 – 3/30/2018
We have been connecting the monster theory to movies and current events. This week, either connect a text of your own to the theory or expand on one of the points brought up in class this week. In other words, find a text to analyze or find one to support the class discussions for the week.
Make sure to include a link, summary, and analysis. Minimum 250 words.
Professor Ramos' Blog 
https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=zZVe6pkG&id=EFAC4C078D4117B7FC21341035BAA75C5796BD73&thid=OIP.zZVe6pkGflcQRST-0rDjrwHaK5&mediaurl=http%3a%2f%2fwww.theradiancefoundation.org%2fwp-content%2fuploads%2f2015%2f11%2fGUN-VIOLENCE.jpg&exph=1875&expw=1275&q=gun+violence&simid=607990019252683229&selectedIndex=27&ajaxhist=0
While learning about monster theory this week by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, in his first thesis, he states that “The Monster’s Body Is a Cultural Body”. This meaning that our views of a monster will shift over time considering the different perspectives laid out over time. For example, a famous monster such as Dracula, his image had changed tremendously as our society shifts from a black and white picture to sesame street’s count von count vampire puppet. These are two very different approaches and explains what Cohen was stating when he says are representation of monster’s change with time.
In today’s society, it is common for conservatives to blame women and often call them “monstrous” for even thinking about the option of abortion. However, on a liberal standpoint, we find that guns and the NRA happen to “monstrous” for not offering gun reform after the mass murder of seventeen in Florida in February. The picture tries to combine the two subjects, but somehow shines the light on abortion more than the gun regulation. The picture agrees that taking a life is bad however one situation is proven across the globe to prevent the death of the innocent, while one tries to control the rights of others. It seems that conservatives try to do anything to prevent the death of an unborn fetus, however as soon as the baby is born they abandon that promise.
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https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/trump-sexist-timeline-insults-attacks-women-appearances-1018198/item/trump-women-attacks-sept-6-2016-hillary-clinton-1018379
This is a timeline constructed to show Donald Trump’s negative comments towards women. The timeline consists of news reporters, presidential candidates and their spouses, models, and more. A few examples of these incidents include a woman who came forward to claim sexual assault by Trump. He responded by implying she is not attractive enough to sexually assault. Another, Mika Brzezinski, made fun of him by saying he had fake Time Magazine covers framed with his picture on them. He responded by saying she had a low IQ and is crazy. During the presidential campaign he posted a picture of Heidi Cruz and Melania Trump next to each other and implied that Melania was better looking. He also said how Hilary Clinton did not have the right look for presidency, and how he was not impressed when she had walked in front of him. This timeline reminded me of the AD Hominem fallacy that was shown in the YouTube video during class. Instead of stating the actual issue with what a person may be saying, he criticizes different things about the person. To me, this also connects to the monster theory four, the monster dwells at the gates of difference. Some of these instances are not in response to a specific thing someone said, he just does not like something about a person. Either way, he tries to create ideas about a person and bring them forth to his public to make them seem unappealing, or different. Although things he are saying do not really make them seem monstrous, he uses this theory to get a crowd to dislike them.
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The song “The Monster” by Eminem and featuring Rihanna, illustrates monster theory because it connects to Jeffrey Cohen’s Monster Culture: Seven Theses, specifically thesis five, six, four, and seven. In this song, Eminem is singing about “the monster that’s under [his] bed,” which is illustrated as his alter-ego that was created by fame. Initially, he desired to become a famous rapper, but didn’t anticipate the attention he would receive as a celebrity. As a result, his fame created his alter-ago, which is known as “The Monster that’s under [his] bed,” and “the voices inside of [his] head.” First, this song demonstrates “The Monster Polices the Borders of the Possible,” (thesis 5) because fame (in most cases) requires celebrities to risk losing their privacy and regular life-style. To illustrate, fame could change a celebrity’s life-style because they can’t go to certain places without being noticed (i.e. grocery shopping, going to the movies, etc.). In Eminem’s case, fame caused him to create an alter-ego, which is depicted as the enemy in the song. Additionally, the “Fear of the Monster Is Really a Kind of Desire,” (thesis 6) because his monster has shown himself that he both likes and dislikes his monster. In the song, he illustrates that he is in a constant battle with his monster because he desires having an ego but recognizes it as a negative desire. In the song, the lyrics, “And you think I’m crazy, yeah, you think I’m crazy,” illustrates “The Monster Dwells at the Gates of Difference,” (thesis 4) because his alter-ego considers him to be “crazy,” to not be prideful of his status. Overall, this song represents “The Monster Stands at the Threshold of Becoming,” (thesis 7) because Eminem can’t stop being “friends with the monster” and “voices inside of [his] head.” Eminem is struggling with overcoming his monster because his alter-ego keeps returning.
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One of the last scary movies I have watched is Insidious:The Last Key. Looking up the trailer on youtube was scary. It all began with a young women walking around a dark dimmy room. She then picks up a sheet and a grey dead looking hand starts moving towards her. It actually was a demonic presence that pushes her against the floor then sticks it’s key finger in her throat, and takes her to the “other side”. The girl is the granddaughter of the spirit hunter. The trailer also shows “the other side”. The scene was white with a bunch of cells, similar like a prison. Just instead of regular human prisoners they were spirits stuck on that side.
This connects to our class since we are discussing different types of monsters. Thesis VII states that monster reside in the deepest darkest parts of our minds, and that they are our owns fears. While in Insidious demons are what the spirit hunter grew up with, and one specific demon is her worst fear. She ends up facing her own “monster” in the movie.
Insidious also connects to thesis VI by providing evidence that we enjoy getting frighten. We watch these scary movies for our own pure amusement. No one forces us to watch the scary movies, we willing do it. In our society we even have a day to dress up as different types of monsters. Many dress up as clowns or characters from the most popular scary movie out to scare others. The feeling of scaring and being scared is something many people enjoy.
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https://goo.gl/images/YtZoSe in this picture they are explaining that guns should be regulated the same way as a cars. But many don’t know is that guns are being restricted the same way that a car is. What this picture is stating is that its the same process to get a car that it is to get a gun. There Is no difference in getting a gun and a car expect the health requirements that is the only difference between the two. So by adding to the health requirements gun control will be a little bit more enforced for monsters to get a hold of a gun. If a monster gets a hold of a gun that can reduced school shootings but then you have the other side of the coin that will get pissed because then they state that their second amendment is being violated. So if this picture were to become real then the world would be happy wrong. The first thesis fits the perfect because the gun makes the monster but I am not the saying that everyone who has a gun is a monster no I know from experience I’ve been called a monster for hunting people yelling at me for killing an animal. So what I am trying to say is that if we add more laws that would only make half of the coin happy while the other is pissed and that’s what the picture is saying make on side while the other gets pissed and then that’s how monsters are made by not following the rules they want to make there own rules and living by those rules and that’ s how the first thesis fits in.
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Thesis II: The Monster Always Escapes
This is a poem I wrote describing death in the form of the Reaper that always causes destruction then escapes only to return again dressed in all black ready to repeat the cycle and fulfill his purpose. No matter how much damage he does, Death is not accountable for his actions and always leaves without a trace. Which is why death is a horrible monster …
When will the time come when I speak to the dead
When will the time come when he severs my head
SOON,
But please do not fear I will come back
Transforming into the man dressed in all Black
Solemn will jump to you with such a clean fashion
However, after this tragedy you will find your passion
Discern the transmundane with no concern for pain
The time has come now I am absent of muse
I begin to recluse with nothing to lose
Reclusion
Illusion for those who are weak
Delusional humans that turn the other cheek
The art of cremation will creep into your wounds
While I will stay hiding inside my cocoon
What is the answer to life’s greatest question
I’ll tell you it is simple
On second thought it is not
Deception is plaguing what I thought was true
Rephrasing and changing my mind making me confused
Yet still I am left here alone with no muse
It is time for you to meet your demise
It is time for you to enter the pit of clean slate
A place of distortion, contortion, and hate
Aimlessly walking accepting defeat
Try as you will but you cannot speak
You are left with two options
Whether you choose
To live life empty following my shoes stuck paying dues
Or find the clues at the expense of Vex
Finding these false clues moving onto the Next
You spend so much time looking at your feet
You did not realize that by searching and searching you accepted defeat
Learn a lesson by scolding yourself for your sins
Remember to stay holding yourself by your pins
The pins that prickle and stab you to a pulp
As you are forced to aimlessly join the occult
You gave your enemy knowledge of what you lack
Now you tied yourself up with your hands on your back
Sitting next to the Reaper dressed in all black
You managed to escape him but he will be back
Whether his letter reads gunshot or heart attack
He will be back dressed in all black
7:77 o’clock will be the time of his knock
I worry by then you won’t find the lock
Who knows
Maybe his scythes will run out of stock
Maybe he will see your true beauty and leave in shock
Years pass through and I still have you
The last on my list, not knowing what to do
At last it is Time
Time for you to die
No more lies, No more lies
I will cut out your eyes
But I pray that you will not die in vain
I pray that your blood will replenish my veins
Soon you will wait inside purgatory
Along with the other sinners inside of hells quarry
Don’t worry
For now you can rest
And remind yourself that you did try your best
I congratulate you as I gentle press
Your fleshy head against my chest
Do not forget the last grain of salt
For when it falls your sins will follow you into the occult
I pray for you still because it isn’t your fault
Death the Devil completed his job
Recruiting evil newcomers into his mob
The mob of dead
As they sever your head
Just remember you will always come back
Sidekick to the man dressed in all Black
777
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this is amazing
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http://www.newsweek.com/trump-grinch-cnn-ruins-holidays-725932
Above is an article about our president Donald Trump. It’s a summation of everything that man has ruined during his presidency. This article ties into our monster theory that we have been talking about recently in class. No, he isn’t a blood sucking vampire or a serial killer; he is a lot worse… An idiot with the entire U.S Government at his disposal. Although he may be the Commander in Chief which comes with a lot of responsibility he abuses all of his power for his own personal gain at anyone’s expense. For example, he shut down a children’s summer camp event which happened to be an airshow involving skydivers. President Trump ordered a no fly zone for his vacation that took place near this summer camp.
Not only does Trump ruin children’s family outings he likes to pretend to help others. A perfect example could be his “extreme efforts” in helping the Hurricane Maria victims by just throwing some rolls of paper towels at some survivors.
Donald Trump is the worst kind of monster. The kind that comes in human form and doesn’t listen to any rule in front of him as well as holding massive amounts of power at his fingertips. (Literally, he has nukes that he threatens everyone with.) He threatens women, cheats with multiple women, and has a short temper with an even shorter attention span. This is a terrible mix to put into an Oval Office. I would much rather deal with a serial killer with a chainsaw than an overgrown baby with a big button that says “boom” on it.
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https://www.pnj.com/story/news/politics/2018/03/29/underhill-defends-calling-parkland-shooting-victims-little-monsters-and-miscreants/465960002/
In the article, the writer Jim Little shows how the county commissioner of Escambia Florida Doug Underhill thought about the protests that took place in Pensacola. He first begins attacking them and appealing to his audience’s false beliefs by stating “You are literally spending your Saturday demanding the government take away your rights. Pathetic.”, he uses these false facts to gain the support of all the people who also believe that protestors are trying to take their rights away. He then proceeds to call the protestors “little monsters” trying to reinforce his claim/thought that what they’re doing is wrong. He then uses the fallacy Ad Hominem to shift the argument of them protesting to their own personal gains and intentions when he states “These miscreants are not reacting to the event: They are prostituting the deaths of their classmates to drive an agenda that was formed in them long before the first shot was fired.”, by doing this his audience loses focus on the actual argument of whether what they’re protesting is beneficial or detrimental to people. He continues depicting them as monsters by trying to convince his audience that they truly are protesting just to harm everyone else when he posted a picture of a Parkland shooting survivor wearing a jacket with a Cuban flag in which he responded by saying “Isn’t she a cute little insurgent!”, the flag that the girl was wearing was the flag of Cuba before Fidel Castro began his takeover, she was possibly wearing it to show that everyone regardless of nationality has to come together and fight against the arising gun problem the United States is facing.
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https://www.mexico.mx/en/articles/horror-stories-the-legend-of-la-llorona
The article is about one of the most known Mexican legends, La LLorona. It gives three variations of the legend, and how the LLorona came to be. The most popular version is the one where a very beautiful indigenous woman named Maria, falls in love with a Spaniard. They end up having three children, but their relationship is maintained a secret. After some time, the Spaniard ends up marrying a wealthy woman and Maria becomes so enraged that she takes it out on the children. In her rage she throws her children into the river, and shortly after realizes what she has done. She tries to save her children, but its too late. The legend says that her guilt keeps her spirit lingering and crying “Aaaaayyyy, Mis Hijos”, or Aaaaayyyy, my children” throughout Mexico looking for her dead children. Many people say, or at least the adults that told me this legend when I was little, that they had either heard her or they had seen her. But I think that adults used this as a scare tactic to keep children from wanting to be out late at night and to scare girls from having children out of marriage. The message is if young girls gave their virginity to a man before marriage he would likely trade her for someone better, and they would end up miserable. Mexican tradition was/is for a woman to be married before having children, but times have changed and having children out of wedlock is not as bad as it used to be. The legend of La LLorona was adequate for the times and how society deemed was proper behavior for women and their relationships.
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http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-43596549
This article talks about how a man dubbed as China’s Jack the Ripper had just recently been sentenced to death. He was called Jack the Ripper because he would follow his victims home, then robbed, raped, and murdered them. He murdered 11 women between 1988 and 2002, but was arrested in 2016. This arrest was made possible because his uncle was arrested for a minor crime, and had to give a DNA sample. The police then linked that sample to the killings, and deduced that it must be someone related to him. He was arrested at a grocery store that he ran. This reminded me of the second theses, in which the monster always escapes because it’s amazing (and terrifying) that this man evaded arrest for 28 years. It’s even scarier that he would’ve never gotten caught if his uncle just kept out of trouble. This mostly reminded me of the second theses because I know that the monster group he’s in, serial killers, will always just produce another. So even though he has been sentenced to death, another serial killer will pop up. This is sad to me, but it’s true. Serial killers die, but the category as a whole never goes away.
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The above tweet is from the March for Our Lives that took place last Saturday (upsettingly, I could not attend as I had to work). It feature Dana Loesch, a prominent member of the National Rifle Association as well as the NRA’s current mouthpiece, as she is a woman of color and makes it appear as though the NRA supports everyone’s right to bear arms, depicted as a witch. The idea behind the image is that Dana Loesch is a witch who can be overcome by throwing a bucket of water (which has the word “Democracy written on it) on her, causing her to melt. Emma Gonzalez, or as a Maine State Senator put it, “the skin head lesbian,” is stepping in to the role of Dorothy the parallel being that she is young but able to command a movement to defeat this great evil. The tweet literally portrays Dana Loesch as a monster.
My fear surrounding this photo is its intense “us” vs. “them” sentiment. In class this week, we discussed how monsters are created but, in my opinion, more importantly why they are created. One of the reasons they are created is to dehumanize our enemies. When genocide or war is waged against a people, they cannot be presented simply as fellow humans who are different, they must be presented as beyond the realm of humanity, so alien and heinous that they no longer are worth any semblance of compassion. If we can look in our enemy’s eyes and see ourselves, then we cannot destroy them. My fear is that we are creating a world so divisive that the NRA are no longer a misguided group of our fellow American citizens, but instead a group of monsters working to make our country worse by the minute.
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The Vampire Diaries is a teen drama show that aired on the CW network from 2009 to 2017. The show is about the life of a teenager girl named Elena Gilbert, and the chaos that surrounds her life after she is left an orphan, and falls in love with two vampires, Stefan and Damon Salvatore. This show is slightly supernatural, and features monsters such as vampires, witches, ghosts, werewolves, and hybrids. The hybrids on the show are a mix between a vampire and a werewolf. Niklaus Mikaelson is the first hybrid to exist, and therefore is the strongest. On top of that, he is immortal. He is the antagonist of the show, and often terrorizes Elena and her friends and family. At times, they are able to get rid of Klaus for a period of time, but due to his strength and inability to be killed, he always comes back. There was one time that Klaus returned in the body of one of Elena’s friends, Tyler. Tyler was dating Elena’s best friend, Caroline, a vampire who Klaus was deeply in love with. One reason he chose to take over Tyler’s body to make out with Caroline and try to get her to sleep with him. However, the main message he wanted to get across is that he was back in town, and has the ability to take over anyone’s body and they might not realize. Klaus fits into thesis two, the monster always comes back, because he is immortal and sometimes comes back in a body different of his own. Elena and her friends are aware of his immortality, and it creates suspense in the show because they never know when or how he will return.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F4r_VBP2m8
This is a YouTube video that does a collaboration of various interviews with Marilyn Manson. Marilyn Manson is an American rock band that was formed by the lead singer Brian Hugh Warner who is professionally identified as Marilyn Manson. Marilyn Manson is known for his horror themed artistic taste which appears within his songs, music videos and everyday appearance. If Marilyn Manson was spotted in the local grocery store, his appearance would probably catch people of guard and inhibit controversy. In one of his interviews, Marilyn says “I like to provoke people so they think. I think that’s a healthy part of entertainment.” This ties into our discussion about monsters with the article titled Monster Culture (Seven Thesis) because on page four the text reads that monsters “demand a radical rethinking of boundary and normality.” A lot of Marilyn’s work confronts the idea of death which is typically feared amongst society. He says that “everyone’s so afraid of death. I think that people want to get closer to it by fascinating over things like serial killers and horror movies.” He goes on to explain a phenomenon known as “used stress” which is where “people get a euphoric feeling over their stress” or knowing that there may be a hint of danger. This ties into another quote from page seven of Monster Culture (Seven Thesis) which reads “the monstrous offers an escape from its hermetic path, an invitation to explore new spirals, new interconnected methods of perceiving the world.” I believe that Marilyn Manson’s rock concerts offer the listener a form of escape because when attending one of his shows, the listener may feel out of ease or slightly in danger.
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https://goo.gl/images/s8sihM
The image above is about a monster know to live in Maryland in the black hills forest. It is a monster that stalks its victims in the dark and is a sight to be friegthened of. She is known as the Blair witch. What she is defines a new type of monster to be frieghtened of because she is different. Not like many monsters her methods about going things are disturbing and horrific. It all starts off with rumors about people witnessing the Blair witch herself and also reports of people being lost and also disturbing findings of human organs in a pile randomly placed in areas. This group ventures out into the forest fully prepared to stay a couple of nights and bring a video camera to document their findings in the forest. To no surprise the worst will come. Little by little she starts to reveal herself until one of the three members is missing. She in a way represents the fear of the darkness most of us have and our vulnerability to defend ourselves. With the missing member of the group not to be found a horrendous discovery is made. They find what looks like human organs in a pile by rocks. That are fresh. They in a shocking manner realize it’s their friend and want to return home but cannot. Compasses don’t work and it seems as though they keep walking in circles. She is observing, feeding on their fear night by night as though she is a predator until the very last night where it all ends. The two left survinf are hungry and tired. She scared them out of their tent and they ran and ran until they find a abandoned house in the middle of no where. Covered with satanic symbols they get a glimpse of the evil that’s after them. He video recording ends with both of the teens screaming and the camera drops to the floor still recording until the house is silent once more. She evokes fear in us, her actions speak as to what her character is, and what she represents which is the things in the darkness that lurks and the mystery of not knowing is what can define her as a monster.
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This post on Tumblr is of a group of pictures of sexist ads from the 50s with titles of quotes Donald Trump has said and has been quoted on. The reason I chose this as my journal to analyze for the monsters unit is due to the fact that many people view Trump as a monster due to many of these things he has said. He does not follow what is considered a monster by conventional standards such as being a vampire or zombie. However, he is still viewed as a monster for how he treats others, specifically women. He also follows some of the monster theses such as the reviving monster and how the monster continues to reappear after being seemingly vanquished. The reason for this comparison is through the bankruptcies that have occurred to him but he was able to pass them by. Another example would be when the monster is viewed as a desire, following theses number 6 and how fear of the monster can be a desire. Many people who support him, desire him in one way or another. It is the idea of the monster being almost forbidden that the thrill takes hold. The idea of him having control as the president was a desire and the fact he wasn’t a politician originally was such a difference that seemed almost forbidden excited many of his supporters which was a reason many people started supporting him, due to the fact he wasn’t a politician. All in all, the images are amazing representations of sexist society and the quotes from the current president fits the images. These quotes can be examples of why people view Trump as a monster.
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This week we are focusing on Fallacies. A fallacy I found recently displays one of the most common: the Equivocation fallacy. In a tweet from Tomi Lahren, she asks a rhetorical question: “…how can you impeach him if he’s ‘not your president…?’”. This tweet refers to Donald Trump, as well as the many left-wing party members who have been coining the phrase #notmypresident in response to Trump being elected as president. This fallacy neither contributes to the debate of Trump’s policies, nor the implications of his presidency. This fallacy is just a petty jab at the left-wing party which holds no value or legitimacy. There is no evidence to support this claim, given that it is not citizens who choose to impeach politicians, but Congress.
In response to this tweet, Twitter user cx (@cxcope) states: “Congress impeaches the president, not the citizens. You would know that if you focused more on actual politics & not racist overtures.” Though this response was non-professional and challenges Lahren’s intellect, the Twitter user does present a valid point. The ignorance of Tomi regarding politics, despite being heavily involved in political discourse, is quite clear. There have been many examples of these fallacies exhibited by millions of U.S. citizens. Ignorance, pride, and the usage of fallacies are enormous issues in today’s society. These behaviors are due to the excess of information exchange without proper evidence but ultimately stem from the country’s primary ailment: ignorance. It is vital to acknowledge and understand different forms of fallacies in order to dismantle unsound arguments. With these Critical Thinking strategies, it is possible that we may begin to produce more educated and solid arguments, as well as avoid slippery slopes of ignorance.
I apologize for the delay, my wifi has been down for the last couple of days.
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