Your Thoughts on Firefly

So, in keeping with my Third-Grade Teacher speech on Tuesday about how many of you need to UP YOUR GAME in this class, I am going to insist that ALL of you download the readings this week. Of course, it would be great if you read the essays, too, since they are interesting and provocative (there is even one with the word "whore" in it this week), but all I'm asking right now is that you download them. Last week, 8 people downloaded one article and 6 people downloaded the other. There are 27 people registered for this class. If at least 20 people don't download the articles this week, I am NOT GOING TO GIVE ANYONE POINTS FOR THIS WEEK'S BLOG. And then you'll all be down 2 points. Who wants that? So go on, go to OASIS and download those articles!!

Okay, now that you've downloaded and read the articles, here are the questions:

1) How does the idea of the "China Threat" relate to Firefly?

2) Do you agree with Wright's claims about the visibility of Asianness, and invisibility of Asians, in Firefly? Why or why not?

3) What did you think of Chinn's argument about Inara as an attempt at depicting a "postfeminist prostitute"?

Your Thoughts on The Matrix/The Animatrix (The Second Renaissance)

Remember, for those of you who haven't yet handed in your midterms, next Tuesday is the last day I'll be accepting them.

Here are this week's questions; as usual, post your answers by 5 pm on Monday, 29 October:

1) The Wachowski brothers (writers/directors of The Matrix films) have discussed in a number of interviews the tremendous influence that Japanese anime (Ghost in the Shell, Akira) had on their conception of The Matrix, both in story and style.

a) What evidence do you see of Japanese (or other Asian) aesthetics and storytelling techniques becoming prominent in U.S. entertainment? You can describe examples from TV, video games, music, and visual arts, not just from film.

b) Director Shekhar Kapur has predicted that in 10 years, the world will be dominated by Asian media. How likely do you think it is that this forecast will come true? If this does occur, how do you think Hollywood and the West will react?

2) Why do you think that, in the Matrix universe, most of the residents of Zion (the last remaining humans) are not white? Offer your theory about this, and explain how your theory relates to contemporary race issues in the U.S.

3) Nakamura says that "The Matrix constructs a new discourse of race in the Digital Age, one that plugs us in to our own dreamworlds about cyberutopias and cyberfutures. And like any dream, it is conflicted; it opens a window into our cultural anxieties, fears, fantasies, and desires about the Internet and the roles of blacks, whites, machines, and all combinations thereof." (By the way, I think it's very odd that Nakamura, a Japanese-American scholar writing about techno-orientalism, leaves out Asians from her list of races that are interacting in The Matrix.) What do you think The Matrix or The Animatrix - Second Renaissance says about "our cultural anxieties, fears, fantasies, and desires about the Internet," and about race in cyberspace?

Your Thoughts on Memorizu/Aeon Flux

I hope you enjoyed our "anime" week. Please do the readings and post your answers to the following questions here by 5 pm on Monday, 22 October 2007.

1. On Tuesday, I proposed that one way that Memorizu is a reaction to the U.S.'s (and Europe's) "Japan Panic" is in its insistence on depicting the dystopian future as not Asian (as Blade Runner and Star Wars do) but as specifically European, with abundant visual and textual references to 19th century Europe, WWI and (the European theater of) WWII. Are there any other ways that you interpret Memorizu as a reaction to the West's Japan Panic of the 80s and 90s? You can either develop my line of reasoning further (i.e., suggest other ways that Memorizu is a European futuristic dystopia), or you can come up with completely different ideas about this.

2. I also argued that Aeon Flux plays out certain aspects of the Asian-American-as-"Model Minority" myth. I don't think that Aeon is regarded as a "model minority" by Trevor or the Breen at all (quite the opposite, they think of her as a dangerous radical, though what cause she backs is always a question). Rather, I think that Aeon's fraught relationship with the dominant power (personified by Trevor) allegorizes the ambiguous, alliance-and-resistance, love-and-fear, desire-and-mistrust relationship that Asian Americans have with the dominant powers (government incorporations, corporations, and wealthy whites) in the U.S. While Asian Ams as a group do have some of the advantages that the "model minority" myth ascribes to them (on average, higher education levels and more experience establishing and running businesses than other immigrant groups), there is a question as to whether they will use these advantages to assimilate totally into mainstream U.S. culture or defend (or create) a very distinct, and perhaps oppositional, American culture of their own. That's my interpretation of Aeon Flux as an Asian Am text. What is your interpretation of Aeon Flux as an Asian Am text? As with the Memorizu question, feel free to build on my theory, or propose your own original reading.

3. I was surprised to see that so few people in the class had ever heard of Japan Panic or the Model Minority myth. Since these were prominent in American public discourse just a decade ago, I guess I had anticipated you had at least heard of, or experienced traces of, these ideas. As you read the Morley & Robins and the Palumbo-Liu essays, what (from each essay) did you find surprising, or especially informative? I just want to hear more reactions about Japan Panic and the Model Minority myth, now that you've read something about them.

I hope to have pass your graded midterms back to you next Tuesday. At the very latest, I'll hand them back one week from Tuesday.

Your Thoughts on Blade Runner

This week, posting to the blog is OPTIONAL, and will get you 2 points of extra credit. So, if you'd like a couple of extra points, please answer the following questions by Monday, 15 October at 5 pm:

1) In his interview with WIRED, director Ridley Scott says that he decided to choose either Latino or Asian culture for a template for the city of the future in Blade Runner (he calls it "San Angeles."). Scott chose Asia, though he doesn't say why. What function did the Asian/Oriental imagery, signage, and people serve in Blade Runner? How did the Asian look-and-feel contribute to the film (how did it signify that this was "a city of the future"?)?

2) David Desser writes that as a genre, science fiction consistently features strong binary oppositions like Self/Other, Human/Alien (or Human/Robot), Nature/Technology, High/Low, Male/Female, Middle and Upper Class/Working Class. What dichotomies do you see at work in Blade Runner? Choose some of the plot elements or characters (or sets of characters) and explain how they exemplify some of these binaries.

3) Why do you think Blade Runner depicts street life as Asian (Chinese/Japanese?), but renders the elite world of Tyrell and his Corporation as Egyptian? Or, do you read Rachael as also marked with Japanese (Geisha?) signifiers? Does Rachael fit in with, or stand out (apart) from, the world of the Tyrell corporation?

Good luck with the midterm exam! And remember, you must print it out, staple it, and hand it in by 3:35 pm on Tuesday or you lose beaucoup points. Make sure your name is on every page of your answers, also. Feel free to e-mail me this weekend if you have questions about the exam.

Your Thoughts on Star Wars

We'll talk more about Star Wars on Tuesday - sorry I had to rush my lecture after the screening, I forgot what the run time on Episode IV is (longer than I thought, obviously) - but between now and then, you have some interesting readings to look at. After reading about the Oriental/Eastern influences on the look and feel of Star Wars, and the relationship of the films to U.S. history, and why Star Wars both updates and displaces the Western genre, post your answers to these questions by Monday, 8 October at 5 pm:

1) Star Wars was released in 1977, only 3 years after the cease-fire was declared in Vietnam and only 2 years after the pull-out of the last U.S. troops. Wright attributes the success of Star Wars, and the death of the Western, at least partially to the Vietnam War. What is the connection that Wright makes between Vietnam and Star Wars becoming a huge hit, and do you agree with him? Why or why not?

2) I mentioned (in my very hurried lecture) that Star Wars has fed into right-wing fantasies, first by being taken up by President Reagan as the name of the Strategic Defense Initiative (as well as providing his moniker for the U.S.S.R., the "Evil Empire") and secondly, by offering an American tale of political and military victory that is purely escapist - that has absolutely nothing to do with American (or any earthly nation's) history. However, Star Wars can also be regarded as a useful fantasy for the left-wing. How do you see the film functioning as a tool of both right-wing and left-wing political views (I'm especially talking about the Right and Left as they existed in the late 1970s, but you can also answer this question in relation to the contemporary Right and Left).

3) I mentioned that I feel that Lucas co-opts Asian visual culture without any consideration for how Asian or Asian American audiences might feel about that (a lack of consideration that continued into the prequel trilogy, where Asian visual references became, if anything, even more explicit). What are your thoughts on this issue? Remember, I encourage you to disagree with me, as long as you can articulate the reasons for your differing opinion.

One quick reminder: The TAKE-HOME MIDTERM gets passed out next Tuesday, and is due the following Tuesday at the top of class!!!