Curious Mammal

Good for you McCain.

If find it funny that someone is making a top ten list of postmodern literary works, but anyway.... http://listverse.com/2009/02/13/top-10-works-of-postmodern-literature/

Here is an article on the movie to prime those on the nuts and bolts of the movie: http://www.newsweek.com/id/212016 Analyzing the movie Inglorious Bastards by Tarantino, one finds many little nuisances that suggest that this is a postmodern work to a great degree. Let's go through several themes and see how they apply to the movie, and also comment on how they were each pulled off. Breaking Down the Fourth Wall: Self-awareness. In Inglorious Bastards one finds that throughout, and at the end especially, History is being turned around. The violent Nazis are no more than fumbling drunks, the abused Jews become the abusers, and of course Hitler himself meets his untimely, and historically inaccurate, demise. This treatment of history and facts show that this movie is a self-aware piece of art, not interested in right or wrong, but rather a meta-fiction. Pastiche: Imitation. Obviously this is Tarantino's M.O. Here we find real insight into the use of genre to explai...

Postmodern literature actively subverts the expectations of these unities. Include several plots jostling for supremacy. Include a wide variety of settings, some of which can be totally implausible. Jump around in time. Postmodern themes. A sense of destabilization and the loss of core certainties which accompanies major transformations in society. Play with world events of the twentieth century: Especially events that reaffirm progress, modernism. Multiculturalism Gender issues Feminism Identity issues Feminism Gay Culture No hierarchy of texts Consumerism Capitalism The west The nature of reality Practical Realism Truth Seeking Use a variety of postmodern techniques Break down the fourth wall – Allow your story to accept that it is meta fictional ?. Make it self- aware. It is fiction, and it knows it. Not truth seeking. Pastiche? Imitating anothers style. For instance. The films of Quentin Tarantino are often described as pastiches, as they often pay tribute t...

Using my limited thinking skills, as they are. I want to look at the problem of truth-seeking. First, being a good scientist, we have to assume that Truth (X) is out there. We need to postulate that it, in fact, exists. What does that mean? The implications are huge. We believe that the world "out there" is intelligible. That we live and exist in a cosmos, an ordered universe that behaves itself. Is this true? Is this starting premise true? Well, how do we know this? Because if this isn't true than all other questions are pointless. We need this starting point of logic to be sound. But let's assume for a minute that (X) does exist. That's a big assumption. How do we arrive at it? How do we find Truth? Given our limited intelligence, our subjective nature, our limited communication skills, our flawed language, how can we possibly know anything for sure? Religion has been picked apart as metaphor, imprecise and outdated. Science has been proven socially boun...

As I am now a teacher of surfing I thought it would be fun to muse on the methodology of surfing. Any good teacher of any discipline should spell out and include the theories, practices, and valued rules of their discipline. In history, my other subject of favor, one learns about precision, narrative, and other conceptual schemes that are relevant to the subject matter. Without methodology students have no frame of reference as to what is to be valued and focused on. Back to surfing... One of the most obvious theories behind surfing is the idea of fun. Born out of an environment of plenty, surfing was created not as sport but as an Eden-esque form of play. It is not meant to be competitive, because the only person one is competing against is him or herself. Hence, Surfing is just for fun. One could stop here but let's go down this road a little further. Surfing and the lifestyle that surrounds it involves harmony with nature, a love of spontaneity, and challenging oneself...

Becoming a Critic Of Your Thinking by Dr. Linda Elder and Dr. Richard Paul Learning the Art of Critical Thinking There is nothing more practical than sound thinking. No matter what your circumstance or goals, no matter where you are, or what problems you face, you are better off if your thinking is skilled. As a manager, leader, employee, citizen, lover, friend, parent — in every realm and situation of your life — good thinking pays off. Poor thinking, in turn, inevitably causes problems, wastes time and energy, engenders frustration and pain. Critical thinking is the disciplined art of ensuring that you use the best thinking you are capable of in any set of circumstances. The general goal of thinking is to “figure out the lay of the land” in any situation we are in. We all have multiple choices to make. We need the best information to make the best choices. What is really going on in this or that situation? Are they trying to take advantage of me? Does so-and-so really care a...

Our education system is broken. This is evident enough. There are problems with budgets, class size, standardized testing, and student achievement. I have thought about these problems. What is wrong with education? Why do we not value our schools? What is our focus and goal in educating our youth? I became interested in education a long time ago now. My interest was borne out of a dissatisfaction with my own education in High School and beyond. I suppose its the classic reaction and reform model, but I have circled around the same set of nagging questions and suspicions about education. My early excitement in education came from a teacher at Saddleback College who challenged us to think about the material and not simply regurgitate it. Since he taught History I figured this is what my main interest was. Recently though, I have completed my Master's in Education and again found myself focused on the failing model of education in its present form. In fact my thesis was titled The F...

Well I guess one can still dream, but unfortunately this one isn't what we thought it was. Here is the response from the author: Hi Matt- I mean milk from their own cows (or sheep and goats, in the case of cheese). But thanks for pointing this out, and glad you had fun with it! (the thought of breast-milk cheese is pretty funny) Merry Wiesner-Hanks

This is a bit unnerving, or just really cool. I can't figure out which. In my textbook on Early Modern Europe I find on page 196, regarding the different activities that women and men would perform around the house and in the market. One sentence perplexes me: "...women made cheese and butter from their own milk..." I wasn't sure what this meant, but to be sure I brought it up in class. It garnered plenty of laughs but in the end we couldn't figure it out. How much milk does it take to make butter, or cheese for that matter? What was the price for some of this substance? How did it fair on the market? Was it a luxury item? How did it compare to other cheeses or butters out there? The questions go on and on. I recently emailed the author to clarify this statement and give us any insight into this interesting anecdote on Early Modern Europe... ...stay tuned.

Two models of early modern European society gives us a view of the complexities present during this period. Both show how difficult it is to hedge out a workable model that can define roles of both the family and gender roles in Europe. As one looks at most of Europe during this time period one finds an agricultural based society where grain and the harvesting of grain is the main source of income and subsistence found. That being said, gender roles in this activity are pretty well established. Based on the physicality of the job men wold perform the heavy lifting while women and older people would do other perfunctory tasks, but still contribute to the process of harvesting. Women would also maintain issues surrounding the home including child care. This model, however, does not adequately show the flexibility and manueverability in these gender roles. As seen in the Wiesner-Hanks text, one finds that during times of bad weather, epidemics, or simply a busy harvesting time, women ...

Western scholarship has been known to focus on several metanarratives that define itself. These narratives can influence how we as historians view a certain time period, people, or event. Modernization in early European history can be seen as a major driving force in past and current scholarship. Influences of scientific progress, a fracturing Catholic Church, and growing capitalistic influences dominate the ideas scholars possess when viewing Europe during this time period. In regard to our own ideas about the narrative of modernization, its benefits and costs, one should be cognizant of this in viewing the social, economic, political and religious changes early "modern" Europeans faced.