Postmodern who?

Sorry guys! I realized i never posted my groups project video . Shelbi Nunes, Danny George and i created a hacked/remixed version to the movie trailer "The Purge."  Please enjoy (:

My Slaughterhouse.

There are many ways and forms of postmodernism, and even more examples of postmodernism that can be given. Postmodernism is the act of denying the existence of lifes principals and breaking it's fourth wall. It's pretty much the same thing as hacking but with more opportunities and options. Because there are really no "Do's" or "Don'ts" in postmodernism, Slaughterhouse-Five is a great example of postmodernism and what it's really about.

Vonnegut's novel is a great example of postmodernism because it has no limits. The book is chock full of unexpected events and unthinkable surprises that fill the readers head with limitless questions. Slaughterhouse-Five is consistently breaking the fourth wall of traditional literature throughout the entire novel. Most authors make an effort to have a set structure and order laid out for their novels before they're published but Vonnegut strays away from the normal novel structure and decides to chop and screw or "hack" the chronological order of traditional novels and change it into something that show's the readers who he really is. At that note, that brings up another important key to executing postmodernism, self expression.

Self expression is one of the main elements to postmodernism, theres really no point in denying the existence of principals if you're not denying your own principals. Postmodernism isn't breaking the rules of others, it's breaking your own, thats why Vonnegut's novel is so unique. He achieved breaking the walls through his own standards and because of that the walls will never be broken in that same way again. The beauty of Postmodernism is that it's never the same. Due to the fact that self expression is one of the main ingredients needed to stew up a good pot of post modernism strew, every expression of it is different. 

The last thing needed to succeed in creating a nice batch of postmodernism is to break away from the "do's" and "don'ts". There really are no limits to postmodernism, if Vonnegut were to have stayed in the few limits traditional literature had to offer when he was publishing the book it would be similar to any other book. The
"do's" and "don'ts" are restrictions to full self expression, when one is told what they can and cannot do they can only allow themselves to think and create within the small boundaries provided. Breaking away from what society does and does not approve of opens endless possibilities onto the creativity table, it's what's needed for complete self-expression. 

Vonnegut is Postmodernism, and a great inspiration to other postmodernist. His works are not only inspiring but eye opening, the postmodernism used in Slaughterhouse-five was so compelling that it was able to leave even some of the most serious readers in awe. Vonnegut concocted the perfect recipe to postmodernism, and it will continued to be passed down for many generations to come.  

SCHLACHTOF VIER, FÜNF UND SECHS.

Chapter 4:
On the night of Billys daughters wedding night, Billy can't sleep because he is aware he is going to be abducted again by the Tralfalmadorians. He asks why he's being abducted and the aliens explain their is no reasoning why.( This scene reminds me of the movie Dark Skies, it was a movie about Aliens called the greys abducting random humans for no reason. Great movie, highly recommend it by the way.) Billy ends up time traveling back to the war then time travels again back to his childhood.

Chapter 5:
In this chapter, Billy goes back to his childhood again but later ends up back in the war where he is welcomed by some British soldiers. After they realize how pathetic Billy's war group is he time travels to a mental hospital then back to Tralfalmadore. Billy also travels to his wedding night and back to the war where he encounters Kurt Vonnegut. (The rest of the chapter is a little blurry and awkward from then on . .)

Chapter 6:
This chapter is still in the progress of being understood. . .

SCHLACHTOF DREI & SCHLACHTOF VEIR

"The dog, who had sounded so ferocious in the inter distances, was a female German shepherd. She was shivering. Her tail was between her legs."

-The dog named princess appeared to be strong and frightening but was kind of a scaredy cat when it came to the war. Her names Princess, the hell did you expect ?


"And Weary, bug-eyed with terror, was being disarmed."

-Yeah Karmas a bitch ain't it? You can't go around acting like a pompous asshole then expect life to flow the way you want it.

"God grant me the serenity to accept the things i cannot change, courage to change the things i can, and wisdom always to tell the difference."

-This scripture has helped me deal with a lot of people in the 805, one of my favorites and very pleasant to run into in the book.

"Bill crashed into Weary;s shoulder, and Weary cried out sobbingly. "Walk Right! Walk Right!"

-Weary all i gotta say is MAN UP! MAN UP! You're representing your country in the war and so far the only thing i can remember about you is that you're overweight and you like to bully people. Crying isn't adding good things to my perception of you.

.

"Billy stood there politely giving the marksman another chance."

-So he shot at you and you're giving him another chance . .? Ok. . moving on.

"He had been unpopular because he was stupid  and fat and mean, and smelled like bacon no matter how much he washed."

-That's a rather unfortunate . . sad thing is today's generation is obsessed with bacon. This Ronald Weary kid
would be the hottest kid on the block in today's world.

"It made Weary sick to be ditched. When Weary was ditched, he would find somebody who was even more unpopular than himself, and he would horse around with that person for a while, pretending to be friendly. And then he would find some pretext for beating the shit out of him."

-Woah, woah, woah ! I had a little sympathy for this guy before but he sounds like a straight up douchebag.

"It was a crazy, sexy, murderous relationship Weary entered into with people he eventually beat up."

-I'm too in shock that he had the audacity to say he had a sexy relationship with someone he supposedly "beat the shit" out of.

"Bullet proof bible,"

-Bullet proof . . . what?

"He had a prophylactic kit containing two tough condoms "For the Prevention of Disease Only!"

-Weren't MEN the only one's allowed to fight in the war back then? Why in the blue hell do you have condoms?

"He was a little boy taking a shower with his hairy father ar Ilium Y.M.C.A."

-That was a very disturbing image i wish i could unsee.

This is ABSURD.!!!

Like i always do before i have inappropriate comments on my blog posts, i'm apologizing ahead of time. My grammar and language used isn't very sophisticated or appropriate but Preston asked for absurd, so he's getting absurd.

Absurd: Wildly unreasonable, illogical or inappropriate .
Or as i like to say, f**kin ridiculous.

The thing i find absurd in life was actually inspired by school this week.
What did we do you may ask? We had CST's otherwise known as star testing. Those test have to be the most ABSURD way of defining a student to ever hit the planet. The test is pretty much filled with a bunch of pointless crap about 90 % of us will never use past high school and the state feels like it's a good way to understand the students education. But look at the facts California ! You put students in a small classroom for two to three hours and test them on questions from way back when and still have the audacity to feel the need to word the test questions in difficult ways that are supposedly supposed to "make us think". Do you guys really think that's the way to understand how smart a student is? Cramming them in a room with 5 subjects we're all forced to take? Over a third of the students BS their way through them and don't even read the questions anyways! You're not only wasting our time but you're also fooling yourselves. If we need standardized testing so much then why don't they give the CST to all working men and women in California every year and determine if that means they're qualified to do their jobs? News flash!, more than a third of them wouldn't pass it.! You claim we need testing to be better leaders of the world yet you lack the knowledge of what we test in yourselves? How bout you roll to Obama's house and ask him to find the sum of an infinite geometric series and determine whether or not he's smart enough to run the country? I'm sorry but standardized testing AIN'T SH*T.!  Stop being hypocrites, you guys don't know half the crap  your dishing out and you're trying to categorize teenagers based on it. That my friends is ABSURD. Standardized testing never has made sense and never will make sense and quite frankly, i find it ab to the frikken surd to think it's ok to judge us all on it.

Gatsby Essay

I'm not entirely sure if we were expected to just simply answer the questions of the Gatsby Essay prompt or if we were to respond to it. I chose a response in an essay format and i feel as if i executed the questions asked in the prompt correctly. Please feel free to comment any remarks or suggestions, i welcome other's insight and i feed off of ways to improve.

Thank You for your time,
~Jasmine D. Beebe

Prompt: 

In a novel or play, a confidant (male) or a confidante (female) is a character, often a friend or relative of the hero or heroine, whose role is to be present when the hero or heroine needs a sympathetic listener to confide in. Frequently the result is, as Henry James remarked, that the confidant or confidante can be as much “the reader’s friend as the protagonist’s.” However, the author sometimes uses this character for other purposes as well.

What are the various ways Nick Carraway functions in The Great Gatsby?  How does he help give us the tour through Gatsby's world?  How does he help us get to know Jay Gatsby?  How does his presence change the course of the plot, the interactions between other characters, and/or the reader's understanding of the tone and theme of the novel?  What else (if anything) do you think Carraway's character accomplishes?  How would the book be different if the narration was provided by an anonymous, omniscient voice?

Essay:

A confidant is a character whose role is to be present in when the hero or heroine needs a sympathetic listener to confide in. In the novel The Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway is considered to the not only one of the main characters in the novel, but he also plays an important role as Gatsby’s confidant. Throughout the novel Fitzgerald has many different situations and conflicts in which Gatsby is involved in that often result in Gatsby turning to Nick to confide his problems in.  Due to this character set up, Nick plays a very valuable role in Gatsby’s character development in the novel.

As stated earlier, there are many situations in which Nick is the one Gatsby turns to in his time of need. Setting up a date with Nick’s cousin Daisy was Gatsby’s first step into becoming close to Nick. Though at first it appears as only a favor, before meeting Daisy Gatsby experiences a nervous breakdown about seeing Daisy.  Nick handles Gatsby’s problems very calmly regardless of the raging mental comments about Mr. Gatsby surging through his mind when these problems arise.  This aspect benefits the reader in the sense that it also informs them of Mr. Carraway’s perspective on Mr. Gatsby. Having a character who is involved with Mr. Gatsby instead of a regular Narrator gives a feel of understanding to the thoughts formed by Nick.  These thoughts not only bring the readers closer to the narrator but give the readers a different outlook on the characters that the narrator is thinking about, in some cases it can make the reader form a type of bond with the narrator that makes the story more pleasant.   “The modesty of the demand shook me. He had waited five years and bought a mansion where he dispensed starlight to casual moths so that he could “come over” some afternoon to a stranger’s garden.” This quote is one of the thought’s Nick was thinking when Jordan Baker mentioned Gatsby’s request. Though it may not appear as an important thought, it puts Gatsby’s request into perspective. Some readers may not have considered Gatsby’s request rather odd before reading this quote. It emphasizes Nick’s opinion and also questions the readers on who Gatsby really is. This could be considered a helpful asset in the terms of figuring out who Gatsby is and what he’s about.

                Gatsby is far from the only one to confide in Nick Carraway, though these characters may not be considered hero’s in the eyes of some readers, their characters are very essential to the novel. Daisy, Jordan and even Tom all have their moments of confessions to Nick. Referencing back to first chapter Nick states how he was “unjustly accused of being a politician, because I was privy to the grief’s of wild, unknown men. Most of the confidences were unsought-.” Fitzgerald clearly states Nick’s position as the confidant to a majority of characters within the first few sentences of the beginning of the novel. It’s as If he was writing an essay, he stated his thesis and backed it up with the confidences of Gatsby, Daisy, Tom and Jordan into Nick’s character.  Through these confessions, different points of view on each main character were practically handed to the readers of The Great Gatsby.  With so many different ways to view each character every reader was given the opportunity to pick and choose their outlooks on each character without any of their personalities already being completely provided. Bits and pieces of each character were dished throughout the novel and through the eyes of Nick Carraway, readers were given the glue to piece each character together based on what the facts and Nick’s opinions they had read about throughout the story.

Nick’s importance in the story is rather significant to the reader, due to the fact that he has one on one interaction with the characters to the novel; his opinions can be considered more valuable compared to the typical narrator.  Nick’s character not only provides a confidant to the characters in the story but it also gives some level of a confidant to the reader. Due to his lack of judgment readers may form a connection to Nick’s character that brings a certain realistic feel to the story. Opinions have a tendency to bring a more realistic feel to stories, it’s like when a acquaintance is discussing a frustrating experience for them, the details help the listener understand but it’s the feelings in the acquaintances that capture and help the listener better understand not only how the teller of the story felt but it also aid’s in giving the listener an opinion and a sense of relation to the topic as well. In the case of The Great Gatsby, Nick the story teller and we as the readers are the ones listening to his story.  Nick’s involvement and emotion in the novel is what pulls readers in. As a result, his feelings and descriptions become the readers as well.

“The Great Gatsby does not proclaim the nobility of the human spirit; it is not politically correct; it does not reveal how to solve the problems of life; it delivers no fashionable or comforting messages. It is just a masterpiece. The best reason to read literature is for pleasure.” (Matthew J. Bruccoli). The pleasure in Gatsby is not sought through the content of quality of the story; it’s the character’s that accompany the readers along the way. That is what makes the Gatsby experience so pleasurable.