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!!!

Your Thoughts on Son of Sinbad

It was a great pleasure, as it always is for me, to watch The Son of Sinbad on Tuesday. Please read the 2 assigned articles (they are on OASIS, and you can find the list of readings on OASIS, too, if you didn't get the handout in class) and answer the following questions by 5 pm on Monday, 1 October:

1. In Ellen Strain's "Defining the Tourist Gaze," Strain makes the argument that anthropology, film, and tourism are all linked.
a) Describe how the links between the three fields work.
b) Where do you see an anthropologist's perspective or a tourist's perspective in The Son of Sinbad?
c) Where do you see a Son of Sinbad-type perspective (a cinematic influence) in scientific or historical or journalistic accounts of the East (Near, Middle, or Far)?
d) Where do you see a Son of Sinbad-type perspective (a cinematic influence) in Westerners' touristic journeys to the East (Near, Middle, or Far)?

2. Ella Shohat's "Gender in Hollywood's Orient" states that Orientalist films "superimposed the visual traces of civilizations as diverse as Arab, Persian, Chinese and Indian into a single portrayal of the exotic Orient, treating cultural plurality as if it were a monolith." I made an argument on Tuesday that Son of Sinbad is in part a response to the Korean War, a fantasy that fulfills some sublimated, repressed wishes aroused by that conflict. What traces of Korea (South or North) or China, or any other Eastern nations or peoples, did you notice in Son of Sinbad? (These "traces" aren't necessarily literal, they can be metaphorical.)

3. Shohat also discusses the "Western rescue fantasy" in Orientalist films.
a) What does she mean by "Western rescue fantasy"?
b) Do you interpret Son of Sinbad to be a Western rescue fantasy in any way?
c) Do you see the Western rescue fantasy still at work in any recent films or TV shows that you can think of? In what media texts have you seen this fantasy included?

Your Thoughts on Godzilla, Part II

Do you like this "Godzilla Saves America" comic book cover? I'm not sure what's going on in that illustration, but if anyone can shed light on this particular comic book series, I'd be psyched to read/hear about it.

Here are the questions that you must reply to by 5 pm on Monday, 24 Sept 07:

1. Only a few of you shared your impressions of, thoughts about, reactions to Gojira in class. So post here about what you thought about this 1954 film. And those of you that did respond to this question in class, think of this as an opportunity elaborate on your answers!

2. Anisfield talks about the ecological damage symbolized by Godzilla. How do you think Godzilla represents our guilt/fear/anxieties over the environment?

3. Now that you've heard two lectures on Godzilla, read 3 articles about him, and watched the original film, what do *you* think Godzilla represents, and why?

Your Thoughts: Gojira (Godzilla) (1954) Readings

I'm sorry that we weren't able to watch the original Gojira (Godzilla) in class on Tuesday. The reason I brought in a Japanese DVD is that for more than fifty years, the only way you could watch the uncut original Gojira was by buying a copy from a Japanese media company. There was no version of the film for sale in the U.S. You could buy that bizarre adulterated Raymond Burr version, but not the original. Well, now the original is for sale in the U.S. (actually, there's a Collector's Edition with both the uncut version and the Raymond Burr edit). So I'm going to get a hold of that, and as I said in class yesterday, either I'll figure out a way to upload it for you this weekend, or we'll all watch it together in class next Tuesday.

Since you won't have access to the film till at least the weekend, this week's blog questions pertain only to the assigned readings: Noriega's "When 'Them!' Is U.S." article, Napier's "Panic Sites" article, and the photo of MacArthur with Emperor Hirohito.

So after you do the readings, please read the following questions and post your answers by 5 pm on Monday, 17 Sept 07:

1) According to Noriega, the creature Godzilla has served many different functions and taken on multiple meanings for Japanese filmmakers and audiences. Godzilla, always produced and/or awakened by nuclear weapons, has represented Japan's WWII military monstrosity and atrocities, Japan's suffering as the only nation ever to ever be subjected to nuclear attacks, and Japan's "middle ground" status as a nation that has consistently refused to build or possess nuclear arms, yet is surrounded and deeply affected by nuclear discourses (the U.S. tested its H-bombs near Japan in the 1950s; geographically, Japan was situated between the two mightiest nuclear powers of the Cold War; and today Japan regards nearby N. Korea as a nuclear threat). Yet, Godzilla movies are almost synonymous with light entertainment; they are almost universally regarded as mindless "monster movies," the predecessors of today's comic-book-based summer blockbusters. Do you think that the low-culture status of the Godzilla films has enabled (or allowed) Godzilla to take on so many cultural and historical meanings, or do you think the fact that the films have never attained critical value have hindered the films' audiences from discerning the deeper meanings of the monster? Explain your opinion and give reasons for it.

2) Did reading the Noriega and Napier articles change your point-of-view on the social relevance and importance of popular cinema, particularly sci-fi cinema, in any way? If so, in what ways? If not, why not?

3) Nuclear weapons still exist and are still a major threat to human and environmental health and safety. What examples of (what Napier describes as) "the imagination of disaster" and fantasies of "secure horror" do you see in present-day media (fictional or not) that address or allude to the possibility of nuclear warfare and weaponry? What role do notions of Asia, "the Orient," and Orientalist discourses play in contemporary nuclear narratives?

Gojira (Godzilla) Readings

The required readings on Gojira (Godzilla) for the Techno-Orientalism class on 18 Sept 07 are:

1. (OASIS) Chon Noriega, “Godzilla and the Japanese Nightmare: When “Them!” is U.S.” From Cinema Journal, Vol. 27, No. 1 (Autumn, 1987), pp. 63-77.

2. (OASIS) Susan J. Napier, “Panic Sites: The Japanese Imagination of Disaster from Godzilla to Akira.” From Journal of Japanese Studies, Vol. 19, No. 2 (Summer, 1993), pp. 327-351.

3. (WWW) “American Experience: MacArthur: People & Events: Emperor Hirohito.” http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/macarthur/peopleevents/pandeAMEX97.html. (Or, go to http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/macarthur/index.html, click on “People & Events” in the left column, and on the next page, click on “Emperor Hirohito” at the top of the page.)

OASIS = Readings can be downloaded from the course OASIS site.
WWW = Can be found on the World Wide Web.