Messing with Time

Paycheck reminded me a lot of A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury. They both brought up similar issues about messing with time. Should we be allowed to interfere with time for profit? In Paycheck, Jennings messes with the future to secure his own future and of course to profit with the company. It never quite goes into the time consequences of his actions, but his taking over Rethrick could have severely altered time. Rethrick could have brought on this oppressive society just by building and operating a time scope. So much can be changed with such insignificant things, like the one butterfly in A Sound of Thunder. Just building the time scope itself altered must have altered the future drastically.

Minority Report

The precrime system seems to be very full of problems, but I think that it was handled very well within the story. Detaining possible innocent people is not morally good by any means, but letting them possibly kill someone is even less morally good. Telling someone when and where they would kill another person would not be helpful in many cases. It seemed to me that Anderton finding the report is what gave him the idea to kill Kaplan in the first place. Some people were never going to actually go through with the murder, but being told that they would actually do it, may give them the courage to do it. A better way to handle the situation would be to follow the presuspects and watch so they do not murder their target. This however would be more risky and time consuming than just detaining them for a time. Many ethical questions are raised by this story, but I feel that they were doing the best job the could with what they had.

Ghosts?

Do Abigail’s cronies think that they can truly see spirits? Does Abigail really believe that she can see witch’s spirits? Mary Warren seems convinced that she could see spirits, this much is evident when Danforth examines her. She claims that she could faint because she thought she saw spirits. If Mary Warren was not thoroughly convinced that she could see spirits, she would have been able to faint on the spot and provide solid evidence to Proctor’s claim. It is never clear as to whether the other girls think they see spirits or if they just follow Abby’s lead. I think this depends on whether Abigail believes she sees spirits or not. In the first act, she knows she is faking it. But, it seems that in act 2 scene 2, and in act 3 that she truly believes in her “ability” to see witches. She takes the bruises and cuts she could have easily made herself as proof. It is never perfectly clear that Abby believes she sees spirits or is acting this way to convince Proctor that what she does is legit. I however think that she has played this game for so long, that she has started to believe her own lies.

Changes

It is really interesting what Arthur Miller changed from the historical account to make this play really work. It seems to me that it would have gotten his message across just fine even if he hadn’t changed things, but this makes it more effective. For one, the entire Proctor/Abigail affair was added to truly involve Proctor in the witch trials and to give a motive to Abigail for accusing Goody Proctor. The real Abigail Williams was really 11 when all this took place, and being 11 did not have an affair with Proctor. But without this, Proctor would be more detached from the story. Goody Proctor was still accused and John Proctor would still argue in her defense, but he would have no inside information on the accusers (besides what Mary Warren says). He also changes the ethnicity of Tituba. She used to be a Native American, but Miller wrote that she came from Barbados. I imagine he did this to play on stereotype, because the rituals of Barbados would sound more devil-like to audiences than Native American rituals. Without the changes he made, the story would not be as effective as with his changes.

Oedipa is deperate

One thing I enjoy about The Crying of Lot 49, is that it is shown as if the entire thing could be in Oedipa’s head. That thought is always there in the back of her mind, and therefore the readers. She knows that she could have imagined all this business with the Tristero. Sometimes it seems that she wants it to be all in her head. She even goes to Dr. Hilarius so that he will tell her that she is crazy. She has no such luck there. This only adds to the confusing nature of the story. The protagonist doesn’t even understand or fully believe what is going on. She has nothing else to believe though, so she continues to chase this mysterious Tristero. If Oedipa had anything else in her life, she would probably never tried to take on this mystery. It is Oedipa’s lack of everything that leads her on. She has no one else to turn to and no one who will listen to her if she tried. All she has is the Tristero and the people connected to it. It is the desperate nature of Oedipa’s life that causes her to continue trying to solve the mystery, even if she is not sure there really is a mystery to solve.

not funny

In my opinion, the only humorous thing The Crying of Lot 49 is the names Pynchon picks for his characters. My favorite by far is Manny DiPresso, like Manic Depressive. It sums up his character perfectly and is quite funny. Another good one is Genghis Cohen. Gengis Kan, good one Pynchon. The last name of Maas is also pretty funny considering the book is somewhat about consumerism, it is pretty amusing that the main character’s last name would mean more. Other than the names, I really do not see Pynchon’s humor at all. I’m sure he thought he was hilarious (as most people do) but most of his humor is just too abstract. Like his Peter Pingiud society. Would anyone actually get the reference if their Literature professor did not explain it to them? Also his random little puns like the living room barely work. That one is not so hard to figure out, but it is not that funny. It is certainly interesting and clever, but I cannot see this line making anyone laugh. Perhaps he throws in his off-brand of humor to confuse the reader and amuse himself. Maybe this book was funny in 1965 when it came out, but it is not so much anymore.

Mission Get Away From Humanity

Gulliver has spent this entire book moving himself further and further away from humanity, until finally he feels he is no longer part of it. He starts this process in with the Lilliputians. After some time living with them, he starts to picture himself as one of them. This does not stick though, he returns home and things continued as they were before. Not really wanting to be with his family, Gulliver leaves again. He starts to identify with the Brobdingnagians. It sticks with him for longer this time, when he returns home he spazs out about how small everything is. He had begun to identify with the Brobdingnagians so much that he looks at the world as if he were one of them. Even though he is finally back home after years of being away, he leaves again. He never stays long at home because he does not want to identify with humanity anymore. He does not truly integrate himself into another race until he finds himself in the land of the Houynhnms. He fits in the best with them, because they are the furthest thing from humans he has found. Every other race he has encountered, at least had the appearance and actions of humans. In addition to being horses, the Houynhnms do not act like humans in the least. They appear very emotionless. Since emotion is a major part of being human, Gulliver would honor that in this race. The Houynhnms were the perfect race for Gulliver, because he has been trying so hard to get away from humanity and he seemingly achieved it with the Houynhnms.

Mrs. Gulliver

The thing I constantly wonder about while reading Gulliver’s travels, is why his wife has not left him yet. He was gone for three years, in Lilliput. When he finally returned he left again two months later, despite her begging. Mrs. Gulliver was left alone with children for another four years while her husband was off with the giants of Brobdingnag. At his return, they most have considered him insane, for all his ramblings. She must have begged him to stay, he has disappeared without warning twice now, but he leaves any way two months later. He disappears to Laputa and the areas around it for four years. Mrs. Gulliver may be used to this by now, but it is getting ridiculous. He finally returns only to leave her again, pregnant this time, this time for five years. I can only imagine that he was presumed dead each time he disappeared. That must have done a lot of damage to her, but not as much as his continuing willingness to leave her all alone. Not only is it hard when Gulliver is not there, but I imagine it is difficult as well when Gulliver is home. He must not be that great of a husband to go years without thinking about his family back home. That must not be fun to live with. Next his low opinion of humanity, specifically women, must have been especially annoying and difficult to live with. Maybe she was secretly happy whenever Gulliver disappeared, I know I would be.

Gulliver gets adopted

It seems that everywhere Gulliver goes, he ends up being taken into society as a pet. The Lilliputians adopted him as if he were a great big dog. They treated him with suspicion at first, but as soon as they realized he would not “bite” they grew more relaxed around him. They kept him chained in the beginning, like a dog, and upon discovering he would not run away, they let him loose around the yard. They gave him a doghouse and kept him well fed. The Lilliputians felt that they had Gulliver well trained and that he would not run away, until a spiteful neighbor tried to have him “put down”, and he left to save his “quality” life. The Brobdingnags also treated Gulliver like a dog. He was fed, clothed, given shelter and taken outside to “discharge the necessities of nature” similar as to what we would do for a dog. Gulliver was to perform tricks at their command at “dog shows” in the villages surrounding the village of the farmer who found him. Gulliver even seems to view himself as a dog. He goes so far as to call the farmer and his wife, master and mistress. Either Gulliver has grown used to this sort of treatment from his time with the Lilliputians or he actually does not mind being treated like a clever, exotic dog.

Testing

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