Defamiliarization
The idea of defamiliarization is taking the familiar and making it strange. For example, if we take trashcan and look at all the ways it can be seen and used. The idea is to take away the limitations that follow the name “trashcan” and find all new ways of looking at this object. For example the trashcan could be described as follows:
The possibilities are infinite. You wouldn’t pick up a trashcan and think “oh, this must be a Barbie Doll swimming pool”. You’d think of it as a container for waste and nothing more. Except maybe an annoyance if someone forgot to empty it and it smelled sour. However, we as a people have a weakness when it comes to examples just like trashcans. We place the objects around us into categories with specific uses and possibilities and then we go along our merry ways, never using those objects for anything other than their “intended” purpose. Where a child might use a chair as a castle, we use it as a chair and nothing else. It’s a childlike curiosity and inventiveness that we have lost with age. We believe that as we learn more and become more intelligent that we must not stray from the “intelligent” uses of the daily objects around us. The sad part is we are, in fact, limiting ourselves with this very mindset.
There are social pressures from all sides to, not only, accept the norm but embrace it. To be different, to see things differently, earns you sniggers from the people around you and comments such as “that’s a trashcan, dummy!” Or some just look away and think you’ve lost your mind. The majority of our society wants the world to be familiar, to be well classified and to stay in those categories. However, by doing this, there is so much lost. The world is a process of discovery - finding new ways to see it, and always discovering something new. It makes the world truly wonderful, instead of wholly organized. We open our minds to much more, and therefore can never be stuck standing still.
I chose this example because this topic reminds me of the poem “Southbound on the Freeway” by May Swenson. I first discovered this poem while in middle school. It was my first encounter with the idea of defamiliarization. I read it for the first time and was completely lost. In this poem, an alien is seeing Earth for the first time, only it is seeing a freeway and believes the cars and roads he sees are the human race. It has stuck with me all of these years as a wonderful example of this topic. Everything is defamiliarized. I pictured an entirely different world than the one we live in, when it was simply a new point of view.
Southbound On The Freeway – May Swenson
A tourist came in from Orbitville, parked in the air, and said: The creatures of this star are made of metal and glass. Through the transparent parts, you can see their guts. Their feet are round and roll on diagrams—or long Measuring tapes—dark with white lines. They have four eyes. the two in the back are red. Sometimes you can see a 5-eyed one, with a red eye turning |
on the top of his head.
He must be special- the others respect him, and go slow, when he passes, winding among them from behind. They all hiss as they glide, like inches, down the marked tapes. Those soft shapes, shadowy inside The hard bodies—are they their guts or their brains? |
Intertextuality
The movie, The Truman Show, is stuffed full of Intertextuality. The opening scene, alone, includes many references to media and television. Immediately, as Truman leaves his house to begin his day, he is seen saying “hello” and telling his neighbor to have a great day, he is also afraid of his neighbor's dog – all are very naturalistic and are directly referring to reality TV shows. Another example is the text that shows up on the screens of the televisions as they watch the show. The word “live” is in the lower corner of a square screen, the hidden cameras, and the ads that Meryl says during the show for the products that Truman is eating are just two of the references to reality television and media.
Two other examples of Intertextuality in The Truman Show involve the audience and the entire meaning of the movie. First, the audience’s obsession with watching TV 24-hours a day is a reference to the debate that too much TV is a bad thing. One man lives in his bathtub so he can continue watching the show, none of the audience is seen going anywhere or doing anything other than watching the show. Even the waitresses just stand around, watching. Finally, the idea that you can live in one world and not know that it is an illusion controlled by another source is a direct reference to the film, The Matrix. Like the film, Truman slowly discovers that his world isn’t real and must then fight until he finds out the truth.
I chose The Truman Show as my example of Intertextuality because of the many perspectives and many different things it deals with. It’s full of references to so many things that it was a perfect example. I also really enjoyed the film and everything it analyzed. So writing about it was easy and allowed me to further analyze the many references and ideas I recognized while initially watching and discussing the film.
Two other examples of Intertextuality in The Truman Show involve the audience and the entire meaning of the movie. First, the audience’s obsession with watching TV 24-hours a day is a reference to the debate that too much TV is a bad thing. One man lives in his bathtub so he can continue watching the show, none of the audience is seen going anywhere or doing anything other than watching the show. Even the waitresses just stand around, watching. Finally, the idea that you can live in one world and not know that it is an illusion controlled by another source is a direct reference to the film, The Matrix. Like the film, Truman slowly discovers that his world isn’t real and must then fight until he finds out the truth.
I chose The Truman Show as my example of Intertextuality because of the many perspectives and many different things it deals with. It’s full of references to so many things that it was a perfect example. I also really enjoyed the film and everything it analyzed. So writing about it was easy and allowed me to further analyze the many references and ideas I recognized while initially watching and discussing the film.
Challenged Assumptions
“Just when you think you know something you have to look at it a different way”
This quote was given to us one day as a Daybook prompt, where we had to discuss the quote and what, we believed, made it impactful. Initially, my response consisted of the idea that by believing you know everything about a certain topic or person, you close yourself off from future discovery and knowledge that can and will come your way. It’s powerful because it is the key to learning and growth.
Since then, my experiences have only strengthened this opinion. I listened to a segment on the BBC Radio called Slums 101. It was about the slums in Manila, Philippines and how many were written off as dangerous wastelands, using precious space and resources and a detriment to the cities they inhabited. It showed the viewpoints of politicians and city managers who were for the relocation of slum inhabitants, and the destruction of the old buildings.
The segment took an interesting turn, however, when it began to examine the inner workings of these “wasteland” slums. Within these slums, they found communities of intelligent, entrepreneurial people. They worked together to create a safe community that can be found in few other places. Families started successful business against impossible odds. Their only faults? They were located in a slum. The story continued, looking into the origins of these slums. Squatters came in, needing a place to reside while they found jobs and income. Many came from the country, where poverty meant certain death. Over time, they built their homes on these lands and communities formed. These communities were filled with students, teachers, mothers, fathers, workers, and businessmen – all key factors to the success of the city they resided in. With this knowledge came the idea that the slum was not a leach, but rather a blessing.
There have been years of research on slums. Their economic effect on a city, the lifestyles of the people inside them, etc. It would seem that we know all there is to know about a slum. However, by looking at this “wasteland” from the perspective of those who inhabit it – those who find love, community, and joy among what we once considered disgusting and miserable – we learn the value and good that can come from this place believed to be “all figured out”.
The idea of taking the known, and making it unknown - This is powerful here and was representative of me as a writer, and as a person. It means taking the ideas and knowledge that you believe to be certain, and questioning it all over again. It’s a constant state of fluctuation and discovery. It means nothing will ever stay the same, but rather continue to grow and redefine itself. I chose this example because I can think of countless times when my assumptions where challenged, and then redefined. The idea that those who were dirty and poor were of lesser value or level of intelligence is just one example of an assumption that was challenged in my life. The redefinition of that viewpoint changed my entire life. It took my plans of becoming a music major at the Manhattan School of Music, and landed me right in the middle of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. When I recovered, I found my body at UNC Charlotte on a path that will allow me to teach children living on the streets, and my heart in the dust and dirt of Haiti, with the children I love so dearly. By challenging your assumptions, you’re engaging your heart in a question, as well as your mind. You become emotionally invested, first because your every pore is telling you not to change something that’s already set in stone, and then because you’ve discovered something greater than you originally thought possible.
Since then, my experiences have only strengthened this opinion. I listened to a segment on the BBC Radio called Slums 101. It was about the slums in Manila, Philippines and how many were written off as dangerous wastelands, using precious space and resources and a detriment to the cities they inhabited. It showed the viewpoints of politicians and city managers who were for the relocation of slum inhabitants, and the destruction of the old buildings.
The segment took an interesting turn, however, when it began to examine the inner workings of these “wasteland” slums. Within these slums, they found communities of intelligent, entrepreneurial people. They worked together to create a safe community that can be found in few other places. Families started successful business against impossible odds. Their only faults? They were located in a slum. The story continued, looking into the origins of these slums. Squatters came in, needing a place to reside while they found jobs and income. Many came from the country, where poverty meant certain death. Over time, they built their homes on these lands and communities formed. These communities were filled with students, teachers, mothers, fathers, workers, and businessmen – all key factors to the success of the city they resided in. With this knowledge came the idea that the slum was not a leach, but rather a blessing.
There have been years of research on slums. Their economic effect on a city, the lifestyles of the people inside them, etc. It would seem that we know all there is to know about a slum. However, by looking at this “wasteland” from the perspective of those who inhabit it – those who find love, community, and joy among what we once considered disgusting and miserable – we learn the value and good that can come from this place believed to be “all figured out”.
The idea of taking the known, and making it unknown - This is powerful here and was representative of me as a writer, and as a person. It means taking the ideas and knowledge that you believe to be certain, and questioning it all over again. It’s a constant state of fluctuation and discovery. It means nothing will ever stay the same, but rather continue to grow and redefine itself. I chose this example because I can think of countless times when my assumptions where challenged, and then redefined. The idea that those who were dirty and poor were of lesser value or level of intelligence is just one example of an assumption that was challenged in my life. The redefinition of that viewpoint changed my entire life. It took my plans of becoming a music major at the Manhattan School of Music, and landed me right in the middle of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. When I recovered, I found my body at UNC Charlotte on a path that will allow me to teach children living on the streets, and my heart in the dust and dirt of Haiti, with the children I love so dearly. By challenging your assumptions, you’re engaging your heart in a question, as well as your mind. You become emotionally invested, first because your every pore is telling you not to change something that’s already set in stone, and then because you’ve discovered something greater than you originally thought possible.
To Revise & Continue Writing in the Future
Socioeconomics:
One area in which socioeconomic issues unexpectedly manifest is in the arts. The arts have always been portrayed as the home to the broken man. The place where those you are oppressed can express themselves. Who hasn’t heard of “the struggling artist”, right? And there was once a time when this was absolutely true. Classical musicians worked four or five jobs writing music and still barely made do. Those who were poor and faced tragedy turned to art as their outlet and became world renowned as a result. We, as the audience, were able to see into these tragic and oppressed minds and hearts and experience something we could not in our daily lives. This was the great joy of art. But has that changed?
I spent three years studying at an arts high school and in that time I was exposed, wholly and completely, to the world of the arts. In that world, however, I looked around and I did not see the “struggling artist” anywhere. In fact, I saw quite the opposite. There were dancers with hundreds of dollars to spend on clothes and new leotards. There were drama kids with mansions back home. There were musicians who spent thousands of dollars on new instruments every other year. It was baffling to me. The kids who had less money were actually the ones failing, the ones not practicing, and the ones uninterested. Affluent children with extensive backgrounds of training and raw talent replaced that community of misfits and outcasts.
The strangest part is that, many times, the children from those more difficult and harder lives could bring more to the table. They wouldn’t just compose based on a sad story they had read, they could compose with emotions that consumed their entire lives. They could create a work of art about childhood abuse with an immense impact because they could create something from their own memories and emotions. No amount of training and affluence could provide that. Yet, in today’s society, so much of what a child does not physically or monetarily possess effects them and how they’re viewed, as well as how they view themselves.
Ehrenreich and Eighner could be examples of this. Ehrenreich is in a difficult situation by choice: she’s conducting an experiment on what living a low-wage life is actually like. However, she knows it’s not real. She has a scapegoat; Her real life sitting in wait in the next town over. Eighner, however, is not so fortunate. He’s placed in the hard situations by life itself. He cannot continue in college. He’s homeless and must search through dumpsters, braving dysentery and food poisoning, every day. For Ehrenreich, the life she’s living is almost real, but has a crack in the corner that allows her to know she has a way out. While extremely interesting and educational, it’s still not her reality. For Eighner, it’s all consuming. The shame of having to dig through trash for food, living without a home and with mistrustful looks from strangers: that is his reality. His reality has a stronger impact simply because it is reality. If he tried to portray it, there would be an all-consuming emotion behind it that Ehreneich could not portray, were she asked to do the same. That’s no one’s fault, of course. That’s just how each person’s life turns out. However, it’s important to recognize the differences as each socioeconomic class reveals itself.
One area in which socioeconomic issues unexpectedly manifest is in the arts. The arts have always been portrayed as the home to the broken man. The place where those you are oppressed can express themselves. Who hasn’t heard of “the struggling artist”, right? And there was once a time when this was absolutely true. Classical musicians worked four or five jobs writing music and still barely made do. Those who were poor and faced tragedy turned to art as their outlet and became world renowned as a result. We, as the audience, were able to see into these tragic and oppressed minds and hearts and experience something we could not in our daily lives. This was the great joy of art. But has that changed?
I spent three years studying at an arts high school and in that time I was exposed, wholly and completely, to the world of the arts. In that world, however, I looked around and I did not see the “struggling artist” anywhere. In fact, I saw quite the opposite. There were dancers with hundreds of dollars to spend on clothes and new leotards. There were drama kids with mansions back home. There were musicians who spent thousands of dollars on new instruments every other year. It was baffling to me. The kids who had less money were actually the ones failing, the ones not practicing, and the ones uninterested. Affluent children with extensive backgrounds of training and raw talent replaced that community of misfits and outcasts.
The strangest part is that, many times, the children from those more difficult and harder lives could bring more to the table. They wouldn’t just compose based on a sad story they had read, they could compose with emotions that consumed their entire lives. They could create a work of art about childhood abuse with an immense impact because they could create something from their own memories and emotions. No amount of training and affluence could provide that. Yet, in today’s society, so much of what a child does not physically or monetarily possess effects them and how they’re viewed, as well as how they view themselves.
Ehrenreich and Eighner could be examples of this. Ehrenreich is in a difficult situation by choice: she’s conducting an experiment on what living a low-wage life is actually like. However, she knows it’s not real. She has a scapegoat; Her real life sitting in wait in the next town over. Eighner, however, is not so fortunate. He’s placed in the hard situations by life itself. He cannot continue in college. He’s homeless and must search through dumpsters, braving dysentery and food poisoning, every day. For Ehrenreich, the life she’s living is almost real, but has a crack in the corner that allows her to know she has a way out. While extremely interesting and educational, it’s still not her reality. For Eighner, it’s all consuming. The shame of having to dig through trash for food, living without a home and with mistrustful looks from strangers: that is his reality. His reality has a stronger impact simply because it is reality. If he tried to portray it, there would be an all-consuming emotion behind it that Ehreneich could not portray, were she asked to do the same. That’s no one’s fault, of course. That’s just how each person’s life turns out. However, it’s important to recognize the differences as each socioeconomic class reveals itself.
This particular blog post is one I would like to continue writing because it allows me to investigate the connection between two topics in which I am extremely interested and invested – music and socioeconomic status. The idea that the artist is no longer in need of help is a topic that few breach. However, it can also be challenged that the best art and passion comes from those difficult experiences – hence why the great artists of our past became great. Being a musician, and self-declared observer of economic status, naturally created a curiosity in me to investigate the connection between then two.
Favorite In-Class Writing
What happens to Truman after the Show?
Truman leaves the orb of his existence to enter the real world and runs right into the arms of Sylvia. After a long embrace, the two go back to her place and Truman begins to learn about the real world. Sylvia tells him about his life, how it really began, and what the real world was like during the time that he was in the Show. At first, the world is beautiful and amazing, but slowly Truman starts to see the hard truths of the real world. He experiences theft, lies, human faults that were never present in his “perfect little world” of the Truman Show. He begins to miss his home inside the Show – how everything seemed to flow and was peaceful. However, he knows he could never go back to that. His world was shattered and there was no repairing it. His curiosity also begins to grow regarding his old friends and “family”. He wonders if Marlon and Meryl ever really cared about him. After some time he searches for them, wanting to talk to them himself.
Truman leaves the orb of his existence to enter the real world and runs right into the arms of Sylvia. After a long embrace, the two go back to her place and Truman begins to learn about the real world. Sylvia tells him about his life, how it really began, and what the real world was like during the time that he was in the Show. At first, the world is beautiful and amazing, but slowly Truman starts to see the hard truths of the real world. He experiences theft, lies, human faults that were never present in his “perfect little world” of the Truman Show. He begins to miss his home inside the Show – how everything seemed to flow and was peaceful. However, he knows he could never go back to that. His world was shattered and there was no repairing it. His curiosity also begins to grow regarding his old friends and “family”. He wonders if Marlon and Meryl ever really cared about him. After some time he searches for them, wanting to talk to them himself.