Short Essay #2 thesis statement
To prepare for your short essay #2 assignment, and building on the brainstorming workshops we are doing in class this Wednesday and Friday, formulate a working thesis statement that takes up a position on the reading and film that you will be analyzing for your paper. This thesis statement is a starting point that is subject to total revision, so don't worry about making it perfect. Most importantly, let us know why you chose this particular combination of reading and film and why your topic is significant or compelling to you.
Note that a thesis statement does not need to be one sentence. It might be complex or multi-faceted enough to warrant a couple sentences.
Also, remember that your thesis statement should be about the texts themselves, NOT an independent argument that uses the texts as evidence. For example:
- "It is impossible and ultimately fruitless to delineate a clear boundary between humans and machines" and "Memories, whether directly experienced or mediated by technology, are foundational to personal identity" do NOT make a claim that is specific to the texts.
- "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and Blade Runner both provocatively blur the boundary between humans and machines" and "In Family Viewing, the only access that the characters have to their personal memories is through the technology of video" are better starts that DO make a claim that is specifically about the texts.
posted by Irene Chien @ 1:00 AM
16 comments
16 Comments:
“In Family Viewing, the screening of video made by various members of the family visually impacts and easily alters the essence of their personal memories.”
I chose to analyze Photography and Family Viewing because I’m fascinated by this topic of altering memories and surveillance. It’s a very confusing and disturbing topic that I feel will provide an exciting road of exploration. I know for one that when my family tells me all these little things I used to do when I was a kid, it always stuck as my most recent memory. It completely erased how I had originally felt about the things I used to do, or the way I remembered it. All I remember now is what they told me. This drastic impact on one’s personal memories by outside intervention is very powerful, and the wonders of technology continue to alter it. I think that with these two passages, I’m able to explore how people act when they view old memories on tape, or when they see old photographs of loved ones.
In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and Bladerunner, the line between humans and androids is so indistinguishable that there could easily be no real difference between the two.
I chose this particular text and film because in reading the book, I found the topic of man vs. android interesting yet confusing at the same time. The empathy test as a measurement of one’s “humanness” was something that I found contestable throughout the entire story.
Because there were also many differences between the book and film, I can explore the signifcance of these changes and examine Philip K. Dick's fundamental message in Do Androids Dream.
The destructiveness of the ability to see and not be seen lies on the fact that it challenges human desires. Without any limitations this power results in dangerous outcomes. This power needs to be controlled and limited to prevent abuse and total domination of one over the other. A prime example of this is found in Michel Foucault’s “Panopticism”, where the Panopticon’s power is limited through confining it to a single location, and respectively ousting the possible dangers and abuses. On the other hand in the movie “Hollow Man”, the power is absolute, and thus Sebastian is consumed by his power and commences a killing rampage.
The reason for my choice is simply because the ability to see and not be seen is a concept that has fascinated me throughout my youth. Growing up watching cartoons and reading comic books have acquainted me with many diverse abilities, one of these was the power of invisibility. As a youth I always dreamed about the things I would do if I were invisible, and because of this I find this pair to the best fitting for me.
“Blade Runner blurs the line between man and machine by examining the authenticity and significance of photographs, questioning the existence of a true past, and stressing the erraticism of internal memory.”
I chose Blade Runner and Photography because I really liked the passage about memories versus photographs. I also found it interesting that the movie examined this same concept in the context of the existence of androids and humans. The idea of false and implanted memories has been something that’s intrigued me for a long time and I can’t wait to more closely examine these theories in the movie and text.
In Hollowman and Michel Foucault’s Panopticism, both suggest that a person’s visibility has great bearing on his or her behavior. These texts imply that anyone who is being watched will act in a socially accepted manner.
These texts remind me of a story that interests me from Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point. I find human behavior very interesting and even though I’m an idealist, I don’t really believe that most people will behave in a good way just because they’re being watched. I am interested to know why people behave they way they do. I plan to explore exactly how visibility affects behavior and maybe I’ll answer a few queries of my own.
"In Ridley Scott's film, Blade Runner, photographs are not just moments of time on paper but also used as the basis to prove memories as authentic to an individual. However, pictures can be misleading or unauthentic and therefore are not valid evidence to prove one is not a replicant, but a human."
I chose Blade Runner and Photography because I find it really interesting that memories could be implanted and a simple photography can validate the "memory" to the person. I know that some of the images my brain recalls for certain events in my life can also be found in one of my dad's many photo albums. But the photographs are from someone else's point of view. So some of my memories have lost the aspect of individuality and my personal experience, but rather a have transformed into a more general memory shared amongst others. And the idea that photographs can be misleading even though they are instants of time frozen is very intriguing to me.
"More than anything, the texts Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and Blade Runner contest that humanity cannot be defined by explicit parameters, or similarly, divided by the things that do not resemble it. They suggest that being alive is not about having empathy, memories, or intelligence, but having a soul."
I chose these texts because they are chock full of philosophical themes, more than the other texts offer. The texts are also closer to our time, as the progression of AI becomes more and more of a concern. For me, it seemed more exciting to engage myself in the philosophical debate about artificial intelligence vs. human intelligence than the other texts.
In Blade Runner and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, the clear distinction between living beings and machines draw ever thinner as androids and machine animals continue to advance and exhibit even more lifelike qualities.
These two texts support each other, while the interpretation of Blade Runner conflicts with the evidence and messages given in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. When I first read the book, I immediately thought of the female “android,” Repliee Q1Expo. It shocked and awed me, yet made me anxious and apprehensive. In the distant future, we will reach a point where androids becoming almost identical will be a reality. I wonder whether the same issues in D.A.D.E.S and Blade Runner will arise and what other ethical questions will come into play.
“Panopticism and Family Viewing, a reading and a film that both strongly emphasize conflict in power struggles, both use surveillance as a means of control.”
Well, I originally came up with something about Androids and Blade Runner and the un-fine line between human and androids, but I can see that’s been done to hell, so I went with my second option which thankfully no one’s compared…yet. I like this thesis because it’s a real thinker – I’m going to have to go back and dig in the text and the movie to try and cite specific examples that match the promise of my thesis. In other words, surveillance might be not used in such a fashion, or to a certain degree, or more so in the film than in the book – and I’d like to explore these findings and maybe do some contrasting (which may cause some thesis revision). Or maybe it’s not so much of a power “struggle” in Panopticism as it is in Family Viewing, but there’s a definite relation between surveillance and power/control, hence the reason for surveillance.
I wanted to do this because like Panopticism, I interpret my experiences with airport security and surveillance to be like the Panopticon, and I don’t like the Panopticon. It might not seem like a power struggle and a means of control (or at least to the government), but to me it’s a power struggle (well, one that exists in my head) and control mechanism. At LAX, I look back at the cameras and try not to sweat, and avoid being sketchy – it’s a war between me and them (don’t get me started on the SSSS – the only time I’ve ever gotten that was on dirty Southwest). I’m their prisoner – sometimes I go into the bathroom to escape and beat them at their own game (no pun intended), although I’m not completely assured I’m not being watched in there too.
Well, I really should have said “For background, please refer to my Panopticism blog.
I’m not saying my thesis is good – it might end up being bad, but I guess that’s what the goal sort of is – heavy retooling and revisioning.
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On a side note, I hope next week's blog is on The Cyborg Manifesto, as the controversy over it (or lack of controversy over it) should be quite interesting.
Hollow Man shows the prospect of invisibility and the danger it could cause for the surrounding people due to the power that the invisible person possess of sight and not having anyone see them. The possession of that power is also discussed in Panopticon and how that power can keep people in check instead of them acting in a dangerous manner.
I choose the prospect of invisibility and how it can curb someone’s action or make they go mad with power. It is a really interesting subject and very interesting to see what people think they could do with that type of power. Would it be used for good or used to do whatever one wanted.
According to Photography, photographs are supposed to affect our memories, but in Blade Runner, they also help reinforce memories that were never there to begin with.
I chose Blade Runner and Photography because I think it's really interesting how our memories aren't as accurate as we think they are. In the world of Blade Runner, technology has progressed so far that artificial memories are a possibility and that photos are used to help us believe that these memories are true. I just find it really scary that even with something like a photo, which is supposed to be concrete evidence, isn't enough to prove your identity. Not only that, but photos can be used to help perpetuate the lie.
"In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, the distinction between human and android is clearly characterized by empathy as a product of Mercerism. However, in Blade Runner there is no Mercerism portrayed to draw such a distinction, so how does the film create a distinction to replace the elaborate set up of the book's?"
I chose the topic of differences in distinction of the movie and the film because in class our discussions of the book's characterizations of androids left me feeling that I would have failed a Voight Kampf test. Yet in the movie the setting is more like our reality, so the VK test would be less dependent on the foundation of Mercerism and more dependent on some other aspect of the androids.
The actions and behaviors of all these people were all governed by one thing, fear. The fear of being caught is what prevents many people from doing wrong in society because there is always someone or something watching.
I wanted to disscuss the comcept of the panopticon with respect to Hollow Man and Foucquet's essay. I intend to show that Hollow Man is an example of power without democracy and present an alternative solution.
A prominent contrast in the character of Rick in Blade Runner and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is the evolution of his identity. In the latter, he becomes something MORE than a human. He essentially becomes a god, the entity that he and everyone else worships. In the former, he becomes a replicant, which, in his eyes, would be less than human. It would be the very thing he seeks to destroy.
The contrast in the evolution of Rick's character in Blade Runner and DADoES is stark and prominent, yet it leads to the same response in the character to the android/replicant situation; the radical change in his identity in both cases is the reason he develops a bond to the androids/replicants.
You have discovered some really fascinating ways to bring the texts into conversation and are staking out powerful claims about them. This is an excellent start! Keep in mind that it's better to use 1 or 2 really strong pieces of evidence from each text (a passage or a scene/shot) and to scrutinize them very closely than to list 5 pieces of evidence from each text without going into any of them deeply. This kind of penetrating zoom into the evidence will also help focus your thesis statements, which will be honed sharper in the process.
This kind of exercise is really a great method to help student writing their academic paper. It can help broaden what there topic would be and help make it stand their thesis statement arguable and debatable. Anyway, keep up the good work!
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