Trauma in Movies

I watched "The Deer Hunter" this weekend, and I found it to be a good movie, very interesting. I find that there are some parts that are very hard to understand in it. I'm still trying to figure out why Christopher Walken's character had kept playing Russian Roulette. He knew that one of his friends were alive, as he as sending him money from Vietnam. I have wondered if it was Christopher Walken's attempt to relive the traumatic expierence in the Vietcong prison, where he was forced to play it with Robert DeNiro. I thought that it could relate to, I believe it was in Caruth's book, how the mind would try to relive the expierence of traumatic event, because it wasn't consciouss of it at the time. That the mind would strive to relive it, as if to relive it so it could die, which I thought that this might be what Christopher Walken was going through, since he obviously did not care whether he died or not, almost as if he was hoping to get killed in the game.
I'm still not sure about what had happened. I couldn't figure out why Robert DeNiro's character was at the Russian Roulette game when Christopher Walken had first stumbled upon it. I thought at first that maybe they were there to help, I thought this had to be it as Christopher Walker grabbed the gun, but then he put it against the guy's head and pulled the trigger, then pointed it towards his own. Could the game of almost been a connection between Christopher Walken and Robert DeNiro, as they both thought each other was dead. It couldn't be something as simple as Christopher Walken showing he was not afraid, even though I think it seemed like how he pulled the trigger at his own head showed part of that. Was there some kind of perverse feeling that, since they had been the ones being forced to play the games earlier, they got from watching since it was now them on the outside getting to watch two other guys go through it. It might be that they were not fully conscious to the event that had happened in the Vietcong prison, and they were trying to relive it. I've seen in other films how the victims of rapes and other attacks, change and seem to almost become the monster that had first attacked them. It is like a kid who has been picked on during highschool, but once he grows taller and stronger, he has the urge to pick on kids. It could be that the victims of these events, that by changing who they are, they can change their past. I'm not sure as towhat happened, but I 'll keep thinking about it, and do some research and see if I can find why they reacted like that.

Discussion on Tuesday

I found the discussion we had yesterday to be very interesting. I felt that both sides of the debate were very well represented. One of the key topics in the discussion was how much right was it to live the lifestyle that we live. The issue that America dumps garbage into India and China was very interesting. I spent some time and looked on the internet, but I was unable to find anything on America dumping in India or China, which I found odd, because either A) we do an amazing job at keeping it a secret or B) that girl had her facts wrong. Anyway, I did find an article claiming that Britain dumps garbage into India. The article stated that there is a "black market" for garbage, which I found odd, but then I realized it made sense. Nobody wants to dump their trash in their backyard, so you pay somebody (corrupt officials) to let you dump it in theirs. I think the thing that we have to remember is that we are taking steps to becoming a "greener" nation. I think America is picked on unfairly for our pollution. India and China are among the world's highest polluters, but it seems that it is only America that is getting the flack for it. Pollution is not going to stop overnight, people have to realize that it takes time, and to be patient.
The problem I see is that I haven't seen any real committment by our nation to being a more energy conservative nation and also to look for new means. I still see the same truck commercials when they talk about how much power and how big the truck is......They wonder why their sales are down, and their answer to the problem is.....lets builder even bigger and more powerful vehicles. It seems that just recently some of the major vehicle companies are getting the idea to start working on increase their gas mileage, and also they need to be paying close attention to the next source of energy, because I'm sure (I HOPE) that there are going to be some big changes in the form of energy coming soon.
I heard the kyoto protocal brought up, and it annoys me to hear about it. People bring it up to say how America is unwilling to become a greener nation and work with other countries. The kyoto protocol was a complete piece of junk. O, all the other nations of the world signed it, no wonder. It would put us at the disadvantage, while putting them in a good spot to make some $$$ off of us.

President Obama

Today I witnessed what will most likely be a monumental event in our nation's history. There were certain parts of the inauguration that I had an issue with. I did not enjoy Arethra Franklin's singing in the least, I got the vibe that she was doing more of a show to showcase her voice than to actually sing the song. I also found the poet part to be very strange. But overall, I thought it was very well done. I was amazed at the amount of people located there. It looked like over 2 million. I found Barack Obama's speech to be very well done, I found it to be inspiring, full of hope. I hope the best for Barack, but I honestly feel that if he sticks to all of his campaign promises he's made, I feel that our country will continue to spiral down deeper into a depression. I found his tax plans of taxing the people who made over 200k to be a little bit puzzling. Already we are seeing companies greatly affected by the depression, I have heard of companies that I have known since I was kid that have gone out of business. And Barack Obama wants to tax these companies even more? I feel that this will lead to more businesses going on and in turn lead to more and more unemployment. I wonder if it was just "campaign promises", because I know Barack is a very educated man, and he might of just been telling the public what he needed to to get their vote. For instance, John F. Kennedy ran his campaign heavily on the proposed "missile gap", that the U.S.A. was behind in the nuclear race, and the Russians were going to win. This scared voters and lead to John's election. Upon winning the election, he asked his council how far they were behind, they said that we were actually far ahead in the Russians in the nuclear race. John Kennedy just said......O, thats good. I do agree with alot of what Barack Obama is trying to do, but I feel that this isn't the time to actually try all of this. He is definately in a tough time. I'm not sure if the fact that he's the first African-American president weighs on his shoulders, but I imagine the pressures from the economy and the world at large (Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Russian, Israel-Palestine Conflict) presents a very troubled time for Obama. Hopefully, he will do what so many believe he will, and that will be to change America for the better, but for now, I'm just going to sitback and see how it turns out, hoping for the best, but staying in touch with reality.

I found our trip to the Holocaust museum to be one that was very shocking. I found that when we went through the top floor, I was stricken wwith a sense of grief from seeing all of the wood carvings, the majority of which were children, showing Jewish people that had died in the Holocaust. As we went down to the 2nd floor, I was amazed by the exhibit on the Jewish brothers that had led the resistance against the Nazi's. I found it to be very interesting and that it gave off a strong sense of hope. I also got a vibe that this was something that the Jewish community would like to focus on. I found that it was an example of the "new"Jew, one that would not allow atrocities to be committed to him or his family. One that would not allow crimes to be permitted against him.
I left the second floor with a sense of hope, a sense of believing in mankind. But upon going through the first floor, I found this new hope to be shaken by what I saw. It was the bottom floor that hosted all of the artifacts of the holocaust. I was also amazed and disturbed that they actually had one of the shuttle cars that was used to ship Jews to concentration camps. I could not imagine stuffing a 100 people into this small car. It was a good expierence for me, I find that we have to look into our past, to change our future.

Spectatorship

Today in class, we discussed how humans feel the need to spectate other human beings in trouble. We talked about how the news plays to this by always showing images of death and destruction to catch channel surfers. I just recently had an expierence dealing with the spectatorship of destruction. I was leaving Tampa and heading back to St. Petersburg about a week ago on I-275S, I knew that there had already been one wreck on the bridge right before you're in Tampa, but I didn't expect there to be any traffic leaving Tampa. Well, as soon as I hit the bridge it was bumper to bumper, and I couldn't figure out why. I thought that there must of been another wreck, but as we edged along, I saw that all of a sudden the cars ahead of me started accelerating as the bridge was completely clear. I looked to the left, and you could see the part of the wreck on the other side of the bridge. I was quick to anger as for one I hate being in traffic, but secondly that all these people had been slowing down to see the wreck. It made me mad, I thought why the hell are all these people stopping to see it. What? Are they hoping to see some blood and gore? As I quickly accelerated as fast I can, I fought the urge, but I couldn't stop myself from taking to a very, very slight glance at the wreck. I had tried to fight, but I was unable to stop myself, which made me very angry at myself.
I hate to admit this,but I gotta believe that there is something that is probably on the subconsciuos level that humans like to see this kind of stuff: death, destruction, violence, etc. I don't want this to be true, as my faith in mankind is already limited. My honest opinion is that I feel that most of the % of the population are just a bunch of violent dumbasses. When I watch the news or television, some of the things I hear that are going on in the world and even in our government (big surprise right) just make me wanna close my eyes, shake my head, then palm myself in the face. But I believe that this is mainly because of how people are brought up and educated, which leaves me hope that we can change things. But if it is true that humans have an inherent, subconscious need to see people in violent and destructive situation, hoping to see blood, I find it very disheartening. I hope that it is not so, but I got the feeling that it is so.

Our readings for Wednesday dealt with the trauma of having to leave from one's home, with it being the French family in Suite Francaise, the Jews leaving Egypt, and Freud's own departure from his home. Before this, I had not realized how traumatic it can be for a person to be forced to leave their home. This makes me wonder about the effects that are happening all over the country from people being forced to leave their homes, because they are unable to pay their bills. I feel that alot of people in America are probably expierencing the same kind of trauma that you can see in the French family.
I found myself having mixed feelings about the film that was shown yesterday. I found it to be a good kind of "feel good" movie after seeing that the boy and the mother managed to survive the holocaust thanks to the father. But I wasn't sure about the comedic parts of the movie of when they were in the concentration camps. I felt that this might somehow take away from the true horror of the camps. It could have been done this way to give the audience a sense of hope about humanity, seeing how despite everything that was happening to and around the father, he was still able to put on a smile and tell his son everything was just a game. Which I guess would be better instead of having people watch the movie and feel a complete loss in the hope for mankind.

Reflection 1/06

Caruth's thoughts on trauma was that trauma was a wound upon the psyche that is not felt at first, but is only discovered when the trauma repeats itself. I was a little skeptical on this at first, but the more that I thought about her reasoning, the more it became apparent that her reasoning was correct. When I look at traumatic events, whether it comes from films, magazines, or real life, I realize that the person affected by the trauma does not realize that they have a problem at first, but only upon a recurrence of the trauma do they realize their situation.
I found Harries work to be very interesting. I was raised Presbyterian so I am familiar with the story of Sodom and Gamora. My assumptions up on till a year ago were that Lot's wife was punished for disobeying God and that was that, nothing more, then I thought about it being more about how mortals were not meant to look upon the divine. The readings from Forgetting Lot's Wife, Harries showed me a far vaster view of the simple story I had always known. I find myself looking at what had happened to her, and why she was punished, and also looking at Lot and his daughters and wondering why they were not punished. I can honestly say that I never thought that Lot's Wife might have been a little bit masochistic.