Personal Response

Stimulus: “My teenage years were exactly what they were supposed to be. Everybody has their own path; it’s just up to you to walk it”. 
                                                                                    Justin Timberlake

            I agree the stimulus given. Everybody has their own path, it’s just up to you to walk it or not. You can’t change your starting place, but you can choose whether to continue or change.

            We born with a way to follow, in a specific age and in a specific society; but it’s our decision to follow the way or change it. For example, Justin Timberlake in the stimulus says: “My teenage years were exactly what they were supposed to be”, so he refers that his way was one, and he follow it because he like it.

            Also, parents try to give us a destination, putting ourselves in a school or not, were we know different people (who will be an influence in our lives). But is our choice to accept that or not. As an example, my parents put me on The Mackay School, and I have nothing to criticize because I like it so much; but may be, if someone doesn’t like, probably he will tell their parents to change his school.

            As a conclusion I can say that life gives us a path, but we must have the courage to change it or not.

            

Newspaper of Brave New World

Activity: to create a newspaper front page of the book Brave New World.

Task: Characters from Brave New World

Linda’s thorough profile:

Linda came from the Other World (civilized) to the New Mexico Savage Reservation with Thomas (DHC). She had fallen down a steep place and hurt her head; some hunters from Malpais had found and brought her to the pueblo. From there, Linda had never seen the Director again. She became pregnant of John by Thomas but there wasn’t anything like an Abortion Centre in the Savage Reservation, and she felt ashamed to return with a baby to the World State, so she stayed there.

She was a Beta, stout blonde squaw. Two of her front teeth were missing and the ones that remained were dark. She was fat, with flabbiness, wrinkles and lines in her face; with sagging cheeks, with purplish blotches; red veins on her nose, bloodshot eyes, enormous breasts, a bulge in the stomach and wide hips.

She was addicted to soma in the civilized world, but in Malpais wasn’t soma so she replaced it with mescal, which was bringing it by Popé.

She was desperate because she didn’t fit in the pueblo society. She wanted to return to the civilized place; she remembered the lovely music, nice games, delicious food and drinks, pictures with sound and smell, everybody happy and everyone belonging to everyone else. Instead, in the pueblo, the other women told her “she-dog” and they beat her because getting relations with men that belong to them.

Relation with Lenina:

Both come from the civilized world and are used to all it traditions: being addicted to soma, doing Malthusian drill before having sexual relations, without having babies, without growing old, doing only specific works, etc. They were in favor of what the World State proposed, but both had been involved in situations against it: Lenina was several months without having another man than Henry Foster and it supposed that she had to be with more men (everyone belongs to everyone), and Linda was pregnant so she had to stay in the Reserve.


Juan Pablo Cortés and Matías Valencia

Task of Brave New World

Part 1:
John’s Profile
John the Savage
            Mother: Linda
            Father: “Tomakin” (Thomas), the DHC (Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning)

He is a young man that lives in the Savage Reservation of New Mexico. John only wanted to be accepted by society, but in the village other boys discriminated him and not allow him to play with them because he was different. They say him "white hair" and that his mother was a "she-dog". He was alone because of being different.
Also he has a dream, he wanted to know the “Other Place”, that place from which his mother came and which his mother tells him wonderful things: lovely music, nice games, delicious food and drinks, nice smells and everybody happy.

Part 2:
Comparison of the Tempest and Brave New World characters

Miranda	John the Savage
Prospero	Mustapha Mond
Ariel	Helmotz Watson

            First, I will talk about Miranda and John the Savage. Miranda (from the Tempest) has lived all his life on an island, far from civilization and the world to which she belongs; just like John (from BNW), that has lived in the village of Malpais on the Savage Reservation, far from the civilization, the “Other Place”. John has lived alone with his mother, knowing anyone civilized, and being rejected by the uncivilized people; on the other hand, Miranda has never seen any men except his father and Caliban.

            Now I will compare Prospero (from the Tempest) with Mustapha Mond (from BNW). Prospero before was the Duke of Milan, and then, in the Island, he practiced magic. On the other side, Mustapha Mond was the Resident Controller of Western Europe and One of the Ten World Controllers. So, both represent power and importance.

            Other characters that are important to compare are Ariel (from the Tempest) and Helmotz Watson (from BNW). Both have a role of help, Ariel being Prospero’s spirit servant and doing all the tasks that he give him; and Helmotz being friend of Bernard Marx because both have a feeling of discontent with the World State, talking with him and supporting him.

Imagery on Brave New World

Descriptive words:

         -Squat grey

         -Enormous room

         -Cold

         -Tropical heat

         -Thin light

         -Pallid shape

         -Goose-flesh

         -Wintriness

         -Pale corpse-coloured

         -Frozen

         -Dead

         -Ghost

The impression of the society that I get reading this description of the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre is that there is a very dark and cold society; a society that doesn’t care about human feelings, that thinks all like robots, that do all thinking in progress instead of people and humanity.

The Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre is really like a human factory, they are created and have to do specific things, a forced labour, thinking that they are being happy.

Aldous Huxley

               Aldous Huxley was born the 26^th of July of 1894, in Godalming, Surrey, England. He was the third son of Leonard Huxley, a writer and school master; and his first wife Julia Arnold, niece of poet, essayist and critic Mathew Arnold. His brothers were Julian (a biologist), Trevelyan and his half brother Andrew (also a biologist). Aldous was the grandson of the zoologist, agnostic and controversialist Thomas Huxley (Darwin’s Bulldog).

                Huxley studied at Eton College. Then he studied English Language and literature at Balliol College, Oxford. His first poetry collection was “The Burning Wheel”, published in 1916; then he wrote “Jonah” (1917), “The Defeat of Youth” (1918) and “Leda” (1920). Then he wrote his first short story collection, “Limbo” in 1920. In 1921 he wrote his first novel social satire, called “Crome Yellow”; but he cemented his reputation as thought-provoking writer of fiction in 1928, with his book “Point Counter point”.

                His life was marked with a lot of tragic events: his mother died of cancer when he was only a schoolboy at 1908, and his brother Trevelyan committed suicide in 1914 because of clinical depression. Aldous was unfit for military service and to participate at the First World War, so he worked as a farm labourer at Lady Ottoline Morrel’s Garsington Manor after he left Oxford; here he met D.H. Lawrence, Bertrand Rusell, Clive Bell, Mark Gertler and a Belgian refugee, Maria Nys, who ended up being his first wife in 1919.

                Having writer’s kin and friends, living both World Wars and looking the death of his mother and brother, are events that marked him and his literature.

                Finally, he died in his house in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States, the 22^nd of November of 1963 because of cancer.

Comparing Ads

Communication and Media

Comparing Ads

       For this activity we worked in pairs comparing two advertisements, one from the 60’s and other from the XXI Century.

Gordon’s Gin     

          

             1960’s ad (1963)

      In this ad we think that the intended audience it can be adult women, because there says that girls that ask for Gordon’s will get what they like, so if women buy that product they will have men and beauty. But also it can be adult men, because the girl of the ad attracts men attention because of her beauty.

      The girl of the ad looks like a first class person (with her jewellery and hairstyle), so here is an economic stereotype, only rich people can buy this.

       Also, this advertisement presents bias. This ad is trying to persuade people to buy this alcoholic drink instead of others. For this, they use an attractive woman, so women would think that buying this drink they can be as pretty as the girl of the ad, and men would think that drinking that, they can be with a girl like her.

       The underlying message here is: Buy Gordon’s Gin because you like it.

XXI Century’s ad (2011)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr5CIkVl6T4 (TV ad)

     With this ad we think that the intended audience is people that is not interested in being like posh people.

      Here is an economic stereotype, that first class people analyse everything (the wine in this case) and drink it slowly to taste it. In return, the other man think that talk about the drink is stupid, he only wants to drink it, as is said in the slogan: shall we get started?

      The bias in this ad is that this TV ad is trying to persuade people to buy this gin instead of others. So they use the slogan “shall we get started?” saying that the drink is so good that you have to start drinking it immediately.

      Finally, the underlying message here is: buy one of this and start drinking it rapidly.