Posting Assignment #6 (due Sunday 11/1, 11:59 P.M.)

Next week, we're going to have another debate. This one will be a little trickier than last time; this time we'll be dealing with multiple texts and some pretty heavy-duty theory. I have total faith that you all are up to the task.

The resolution we will be debating is:

RESOLVED, that Snow Crash is a Hegelian story, not a Brechtian story.

Your post this week, like before our last debate, will again take the form of a position paper. (As a quick reminder, in a position paper, you state your position at the outset and then spend the rest of the paper defending your position.) We'll do teams by FIRST NAMES this time.

If your first name begins with A(nneva)-J(on), you will write a position paper in favor of this resolution. That is, you will argue that Snow Crash is a Hegelian story, not a Brechtian story.

If your first name begins with K(aitlin)-Y(erbol), you will write a positon paper in opposition to this resolution. That is, you will argue that Snow Crash is NOT a Hegelian story; rather, it is a Brechtian story.

Obviously, your two main sources for this position paper will be the SECOND HALF of Snow Crash (Chs. 39-71) and the "Hegel and Brecht" chapter from Theatre of the Oppressed. Please make explicit reference to both texts in your position paper -- including quotes and/or page citations. Feel free to bring in other texts from class if you think they'd help, but generally stay focused on these two; they'll give you plenty to work with!

blog 5

Snow Crash makes me feel excited, angry, and fearful. The beginning of the book made me feel excited because of the Deliverator’s car with the orange lights, speeding through backyards in a race against the clock and landing in a pool. Y.T. has an exciting job as a Kourier, and she is fearless and adventurous. I feel angry at mankind for still having racism: "WHITE PEOPLE ONLY. NON-CAUCASIANS MUST BE PROCESS,” reads a sign on a gate into one of the city-states. I am fearful for the future because this all seems not so unlikely. The idea of dividing America into city-states with their own constitutions, border, laws and cops (p.6) seems likely to me. The Metaverse and Avatars described are very similar to the game World of Warcraft, and I can totally believe something like the Metaverse could exist right now.

The protagonist is Hiro, and I can empathize in some ways with him. Hiro lives in a storage unit, but he doesn’t seem unhappy. I empathize most with Y.T. when she goes to jail. I feel what she feels more than I feel what Hiro feels because I have more in common with Y.T. She is a young woman who likes adventure. I feel excited yet fearful for Y.T. when she is riding her skateboard around harpooning cars. I like to read books or watch movies about women who are strong and brave and stand up for themselves. Although Y.T. is young, she is brave because she rides around on her board and harpoons cars like the Deliverator’s that are going 100+ kilometers per hour! Reading about daring women is exciting and inspiring to me.

I feel mad when she gets arrested, because the cops make her pay 750 billion dollars to take her to the Hoosegow instead of the Clink (a hotel for prisoners instead of jail), but the Hoosegow is all filled up and they take her to jail anyway. I feel pity and embarrassed for Y.T. when she is taken to jai; “’Better take her uniform-all that gear.’ The manager looks at Y.T., trying not to let his gaze travel sinfully up and down her body.”(p. 53). This makes me feel embarrassment because the cops are all grown men and Y.T. is a young woman. The reason I love her so much is because she is so strong-willed! She stands up for herself, “she does not get upset because she knows that they are expecting her to. A Kourier has to establish space on the pavement. They mentally assign you a little box in the lane, assume you will stay there, can’t handle it when you leave that little box. Y.T. is not fond of boxes.” She does not let the cops “put her in a box” or make her follow rules. She unzips her clothes and they make her zip back up. (p.53) I love that she does this, because I like to see women standing up for themselves, and it gives me courage to do the same.

Snow Crash

This book certainly does make me feel several different things at once. There are a lot of ideas that are put forward in the book that are very fantastic, but also have enough reality mixed in to really reach out to the reader. I am a person who is a pretty firm believer in capitalism so this text was of particular interest to me. I think that Stephenson takes this story a few steps past the point of plausibility, but it does make for some interesting thinking. One of the characters/settings that really stands out to me in this story is on page 62, when it talks about Hiro and Juanita and what they did with their money.
“It would be easy to say that Hiro is a stupid investor and Juanita a smart one, but the facts are a little more complicated than that… [Hiro’s situation]… So when his mother visits him the Metaverse, looking tan and happy in her golfing duds, Hiro views that as his personal fortune. It won’t pay the rent, but that’s okay- when you live in a shithole, there’s always the Metaverse, and in the Metaverse, Hiro Protagonist is a warrior prince.”
There are several interesting points that come out of this text for me. First off it is interesting to me that in this futuristic world of pure capitalism we can still see people who find value in non-material accomplishments. Hiro is very poor, but he is still able to see real value in putting his mom up in a place she likes.
Another point that I find really interesting about this section of the text is in the last sentence. It sounds like in this world there are a lot of people (although I do realize that this world does not provide Metaverse access to a lot of people) who are able to find escapism in the Metaverse. To be able to live out fantasy in a made up world is probably a requirement of their reality. This text talks about all of the people who managed to sneak on to the Metaverse by way of public access (libraries). Since there is such obvious disparity in wealth in Stephenson’s world, I would think that there would need to be some kind of escapism for people who are on the low end of the totem pole.

Blog 5

Before I started reading this book, I took a quick look at the back of it for a preview. With this being said, I felt as if the book were kind of a joke when I first started reading it just because I already knew that he was describing himself as a pizza delivery guy the whole time. I thought it was funny how he was over glorifying his job in the first two pages by giving himself name the “Deliverator.” He also mentions how he carries weapons and that how awesome his car supposedly is. If I weren’t to have looked at the back of the book and found out he was a pizza delivery guy ahead of time, I probably would have taken the Hiro more seriously. As I kept reading, I started to take him more seriously even though he mentions that he is nothing but a pizza delivery guy because how he keeps making his job seem extremely important. He does this by mentioning how he’s never delivered a pizza in more than 21 minutes and how he must take care of every little detail like the cleaning the pizza box slots in his car.

When Hiro ends up driving into an empty pool while making a delivery, Stephenson had managed to give me a gut wrenching feeling similar to when I had lost one of my own earlier jobs. I think Stephenson does a really good job of creating these feelings through all the events leading up to it that begin on page 11 when he receives the 20 minute old pizza to deliver. The instant he ends up in the pool is when I felt that all the efforts of planning the short cut on the spot and trying to shake the kourier off his car were lost along with his current job.

Blood-drenched Frisbees flying through the air

Reading Snow Crash I feel scared about our future as a society but hopeful at the same time. The world Stephenson creates is based on what we know but at some point society took a different turn leaving us with something sick and twisted. The police force is privatized making the officers' sense of duty garbled to the point that Y.T.'s greatest fear when being arrested is having to sit through thirty minutes of disclaimers and advertisements. Prisons are privatized as well, which as we recently learned from a case in Pennsylvania, can lead to some questionable sentencing by judges who stand to make more money depending on how many people they send off to jail.

As of now the case of two judges convicted of fraud over that incident is a news worthy scandal. The worrisome part about the justice system in the book is that it seems plausible and people accept it. Stephenson uses alienation and a fair amount of hyperbole to invoke fear. We all have an understanding of what the role of a police force is; we hope that justice is blind. But in this book assumptions like that are thrown back in the reader's face.

On page 83 we are introduced to A-367. A-367 is a guard dog with a friendly personality and his own little yard. At least he would be a guard dog (he even thinks he's a guard dog) but in fact it's a semi-autonomous guard unit that must either move very fast or be super-cooled so it doesn't melt. When a few pages later a grenade goes off damaging A-367 it is hard to not feel sorry for him. He says of himself that he belongs to a big pack of nice doggies. These are all machines, programmed to remove anyone from a certain part of town based on their citizenship. Citizenship is either bought or given to anyone of asian descent.

Surrounded by questionable characters who flee their responsibilities and confines of class into the metaverse there is also some hope. Relationships still work the same way (more or less). Y.T. talks about being mad at her boyfriend because he doesn't have the time to help her break out of jail but plans on forgiving him on their next date if he's willing to grovel. She also decides to help A-367 after he gets damaged although there was no way of knowing if she could get hurt or if A-367 is even a sentient being. All said and done, people in snow crash are still trying to be decent human beings, whether it's Hiro giving up a future fortune to help his mother or Y.T. saving a semi autonomous guard unit.

Overload

This book was very entertaining but incredibly confusing. I found myself thinking that I knew what they were talking about but then another perspective was thrown in. Through this stimulation of perspectives Stephenson uses them to keep the reader interested as it did me. I was always on edge and trying to figure out what was going on. The state of confusion that I was in at different points in the book kept me reading and intrigued. Hiro Protaganist made me feel that he was a slacker, I felt that he didn't do anything but sit on his computer and try to escape reality in the Metaverse. I related to him in this way because I too can be a true slacker and try to escape reality in different ways. It made me realize that I am more productive in reality rather than outside it and it takes real guts to take on reality. The time when I had realized which part of the story was reality and which was not was the point in which I felt that this was a joke, it seemed to me it was just a story that personified nerds and really didn't feel that it was worth my time. However, I was still drawn to it though for it's rather fast paced storyline. I don't know specifically what it was but something else drew me in. The text kept me on edge such as when the kourier was trailing Hiro. I could feel myself along for the ride getting excited and frustrated along with Hiro. Stephenson told it in such a way that I was wanting more. The frustration that Hiro felt throughout trying to do his job as a deliverator was felt on my end. The way obstacles would get in the way keeping him from doing his job the best that he can and the disappointment of not getting a job done or living up to standards that were set for him like crashing into the pool. When I don't accomplish what I set out to do it is devastating not so much that I didn't do it but I let people down and ruined their reputation or caused them to lose money. Like the deliverators they wanted to uphold their pride for Uncle Enzo and CosaNostra Pizza. This job was his family, as Hiro stated and since he had disgraced his family by crashing the car and more importantly not making the delivery he could not return. In many ways I feel that way when I screw up with my family. The point of contrast though is that my family will always accept me, affirm my mistake, and try to make it right.

blog post #5

after reading the first couple chapters, no, pages, i already felt that this is a really different book then the other we have read so far in class. first of all, I think the background is a huge difference, although the author didn't state what year specifically when the story happens. but from the content about the pizza box with LED clock, we can tell it's something that might happen in the future. There seems to be a lot of thing going on in the beginning of this book, the chasing part is one of the part that grab my attention and makes me want to read more. The reason is that the way the author describes it makes me so tense and nervous about the result of the pizza delivery, the result of him crashing the mafia car at the end makes me feel that i want to continue reading. In chapter 5 where we see this Metaverse world Hiro has created, i also really enjoy the way author uses to describe this Metaverse world and how he made an interesting first expression about mentioning "Snow Crash", but not letting the reader find out what it is right away.
i consider it a good strategy to keep the reader anxious and to keep story attracting. it is clear that we see some swear words in this book, i can appreciate the swear words that come out from Hiro's mouth when he got mad. i feel like its appropriate for author to show what the character truly is and what he wanted to express, that makes Hiro more real to me.
therefore to conclude my point, the author makes me feel anxious, nervous when i read the book. The way he uses is the creative style, the way he grab readers attention in the beginning, and the language he uses.

This book showed the competitiveness in the world. Stephenson made me feel nervous and intensified. It showed the competitive nature of business through a pizza shop.

On page 178 it talks about Y.T. going through a poor part of the neighborhood to pick up a package. Y.T. is fearless. She is going through a place described as an “open-air insane asylum” or a “Moonie festival” on a skateboard. The people living in this area are dirt poor. Stephenson describes them as a group of people that cannot take care of themselves in ratty clothing. Stephenson uses phrases like “dead car” and “dark monitor screen” to help set up the eerie and dumpy neighborhood. I felt like Y.T. was in a horror scene. I really started getting nervous when she picking up the suitcase from the guy. The small group of people seemed different from everyone else and lonely. The small group was spoke their own babblish language that Y.T. did not understand. The group felt lonely when the guy giving Y.T. the package kept trying to get Y.T. to stick around and visit with them. He first offers her a drink and then asks her to hang with his “community” and learn things that could potentially change her life. This part confused me cause it was a short segment of chapter 23 but it made me pause and think what this so called community could offer her that would change her life. I felt confused as to why they would offer her information to help her. Is this foreshadowing for the future chapters somehow?

Later in the chapter on page 180 when Y.T. was pooning, Jason pulls up next to her and offers her his rear-quarter panel. Although Jason helped her previously I still felt nervous if she should poon with him again. Then when he immediately stopped in an empty parking lot with a semi I really felt on edge. Stephenson described the guy in the semi, his office, with a slick hair and black suit. I felt like this man was all business and could potentially be danger. When she got in and the truck started moving I started empathizing for Y.T. and the possible danger she could have gotten herself into, especially when Stephenson writes on page 182, “She’s trying to sound tough and brave, but it’s a hollow act in these circumstances.” The scene got more intensified when he started using vulgar language. I felt for Y.T. in this situation and felt she was absolutely petrified and did not know what to do or think in this forceful situation.

Snow Crash

After reading the first few pages of Snow Crash I felt alot of different emotions. First of all I was honeslty kind of shocked at what I was reading. I right away put my self into the shoes of the Deliverator when he is talking about how the world is now. He says, "No sidewalks, no schools, no nothing. Dont have their own police force, no immigration control, undesirables can walk right in without being frisked or even harassed." (pg.6) I could never imagine living in a place with those things. I know that this is a very technologically advanced world that Hiro and the other characters are living in but I still cant imagine how they do it. I was also a little confused at first when he starts explaining how the pizza delivery system works. Like why would someone ever want to set up a system that works that way. But then it got me into thinking that today everyone wants everything right now and cant wait for things so maybe this is how our society will end up. Everything will always be in such a timely manner (not that it isnt right now) but that there will be consequences for not meeting the time requirements, that would really be outrageous.
To go with this same theme Stephenson talks about how when there wasnt a pizza ready for the Deliverator that he got very upset and knew that somethign was wrong when the window opened up. From that little fire, he got so upset and knew that he couldnt show that because he didnt want to upset Uncle Enzo and knew that if he payed any attention to it the pizza would be late and he would have to pay. The anticipation throughout that whole scene when he knew he had to get that pizza delivered was pretty intense. Stephenson creates alot of scenes throughout the book like this.
When I was reading the start of chapter 19, page 149 when he talks about standing above Lago's corpse. It reads," He is beyond astonishment as he stands and stares at Lago's corpse. All the emotions will probably come piling in on him later, when he goes home and tries to sleep. For now, the thinking part of his brain seems cut loose from his body, as if he has just ingested a great deal of drugs, and he is just as cool as Squeaky." I like this passage because I think alot of people can relate to how he is feeling. Whenever you encounter a dead or dieing person you almost never know how to react or what the right thing to say or do is. Your whole body goes numb and you dont know what is really going on. This passage also makes me feel a little confused because you would think that someone as strong minded as Hiro doesnt let these kinds of things get to him, but like it said maybe once he goes home everything that has happen will hit him all at once and he wont know how to handle it. Whenever people keep their emotions bottled up we always tend to explode sooner or later. I think that this book will give alot more relizations about how the future of our world will be because in my opinion we have already started heading there.

The Newish World of Snow Crash

Snow Crash throws so much information at you at one time, it’s hard to decide what, if anything, you are feeling at all. But, like most books, after you get past the first few pages of new terms and confusing sci-fi definitions and conditions that this imaginary world abides by, I can describe how I feel. I feel like a special person intruding with special permission into a world that is not only new and foreign to me but completely interesting. For the good beginning portion of the book, you don’t know for certain what’s going on; new terms are being thrown at you, and you can’t decipher how much of this new world is based on parts of the world that you do know. Stephenson makes you feel lost in an entirely new world you aren’t prepared for.
That being said, there are more specific feelings that come in mind after the first few chapters are finished. Right away, you can connect with the proposed hero of this story, Hiro Protagonist. It might be hard to understand his whole history because we don’t exactly know how he came about, besides being the son of a soldier. You do know that he lives day to day, is not extremely rich but not destitute, and you know after a while that he was someone of importance until he decided otherwise. Stephenson shows that he is not the richest man, and that he has suffered a lot, and that he has a lot more to work through.
One of the passages that made me feel for Hiro the most is when he is conversing with his ex business partner and former friend Da5id. On page 71, Hiro thinks to himself that “he’s always considered himself to be Da5id’s equal, and he can’t stand the idea of feeding off Da5id’s little crumbs and tidbits , like a dog burled up under his table,” when learning new gossip from Da5id. I think this is appropriate of the pity you can feel for Hiro; he is not nearly as wealthy as he should be, and a lot less so than Da5id, but still holds some pride for himself. It’s sad to see someone who used to be great to be reduced to listening for small bites of information.
I think the Metaverse is also a place of great feeling, but not of pity or sadness, but of simply being in the future. Although we have plenty of Avatar-like games in our present society, it is mostly reserved for “nerds” and “dorks”. But in this alternate world, it is a completely normal and usual thing to be walking around in a computerized universe. You feel technical just reading this book, learning about hackers and computer programmers. I, for one, don’t know how someone makes up a universe where anything is possible on a computer. But I also know that we may be headed to a very similar future, as the back of the book states. Snow Crash is a universe that we can almost immediately recognize as close to our own.

Snow Crash

While I was reading Snow Crash, I felt a whole lot of different things. Mostly it makes me feel anxious and a little scared and confused. I feel like the whole book has an ominous tone. It just seems so dark and I felt the same way reading it the same way I did while watching the Matrix for some reason. I think that maybe it's that whole idea of very advanced technology, especially since I only have basic computer skills. I can barely grasp my head around the idea of using a physics program for analyzing motion let alone the creation/use of a virtual world.

If this book is a glimpse of future America, I might be a little afraid. The technology just seems so advanced, which is fine. But it just doesn't seem like any social issues have changed. Pizza boxes digital times on the boxes, yet there is apartheid is certain neighborhoods? I would hope that as we develop more as a society that maybe would be able not go, essentially, back in time, but move forward. Hopefully, we can be military, as described on pg. 58.

It was rather hard for me to empathize with anyone in this book. Most of it just seems so unrealistic. The only thing that is realistic to me is a young teen pregnancy and pizza being delivered by the mafia (Honestly I'm sure that happends more than anyone knows.). But, I can't relate to any of that, since I've never been pregnant, in the mafia, or delivered pizzas.

Snow Crash

As I read Snow Crash I almost constantly feel uptight, tense, stressed, and overwhelmed. The scenes set early in the story describe Earth as an over-populated, money-hungry, angry, harsh place. It makes me feel those anxious/nervous feelings because the characters, scene, and plot are all extremely intense. Stephenson introduces Hiro as a really aggressive, highly emotional character. Within the first few pages Hiro is dropping F-bombs, driving at extreme speeds, while doing all sorts of crazy maneuvers behind the wheel. Stephenson really attempts to turn up the intensity in the book by the in-your-face writing style he has. Just look at the 2nd page of the book! Stephenson describes his sword carrying pizza man and the world he lives in; “Why is the Deliverator so equipped? Because people rely on him. He is a roll model. This is America. People do whatever the fuck they feel like doing, you got a problem with that? Because they have a right to. And because they have guns and no one can fucking stop them.” That’s only the 2nd page and the main character and scene are just being described and I am already tensed up saying “Holy crap, what am I about to read?”
There are a lot of scenes that make me feel tense as I read the story but one in particular is the scene where Hiro is waiting for another pizza box to come to him but the manager is too busy putting out a fire in the kitchen. “It is the kind of fire that just barely puts out enough smoke to detonate the smoke alarms. And he is losing time for this shit. The Deliverator holds the horn button down.” As Hiro waits he gets angrier and more tense and I find myself riding along Hiro’s emotional. I am reading the story saying “JUST GET HIM A F***ING PIZZA ALREADY!”
The scene I find myself empathizing with a character the most is when Hiro crashes his car into the back yard (empty) pool. Neal Stephenson does a great job of emphasizing the importance for Hiro and other pizza Deliverators to make sure that the pizza arrives within the 30 minute span. Look at how Stephenson describes this scene on page 11. “If there was trouble on this road, they’d be babbling about it in Taxilinga, give him some warning, let him take an alternate route so he wouldn’t get
he grips the wheel
stuck in traffic
his eyes get big, he can feel the pressure driving
them back
into his skull
or caught behind a mobile home
his bladder is very full
and deliver the pizza
Oh, God oh, God
late”
Stephenson does an incredible job of emphasizing the worry Hiro is feeling at that moment. Soon after we learn that Hiro attempts to take a shortcut which ends with his car totaled in a stranger’s drained swimming pool . It is easy for me to understand these emotions because I have gone through a very similar thought processes when I attempted to hurry home during a winter snow storm in Wisconsin. The whole time my mind wandered from what is actually going on to the terrifying feeling of the dangers (i.e. being stuck in traffic, or behind slow drivers) that might be still get in my way. As I sped along barely being able to see the road I lost control of my car and drove head-on into the guard rail, spun a complete 360 degrees, crossed two lanes of highway and ended up on the opposite shoulder. I pretty clearly went through the oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, *crash* GOD DAMNIT!!!! mindset that Hiro goes through in this scene. Cheesy enough, I had my own “snow crash.”

BLOG FIVE.

While reading Snow Crash--I had conflicting feelings. I either felt this mechanical feeling like even the real living characters weren't real, they seemed computerized even outside of the Metaverse. For example, YT has this superhuman ability to poon fast moving cars and skateboard behind them--which, I am sure happens in reality but, still seems incredibly and unrealistic. While Hiro is running around with a sword--which screams of being in a video game. When I viewed these characters in a sort of robotic way--I had trouble emphasising with them. There was also a self assurance in the Hiro and YT that kept me from feeling pity for them in hard situations--because, I felt confident that they could handle them. For example, on pg. 77 YT has been taken to the Clink and is handcuffed up but her mom calls her personal phone and she talks to her in total confidence about the fact that she is at her friend's house. --what normal 15 year old would be locked up and not only not calling mom for help but, not utilizing talking to her when she does call?

On the other hand, I would see aspects of the characters that I felt were more humanistic and I would briefly feel differently towards them--feel empathetic and view them as a real human and not a character--the scene that stands out in particular is on pg. 149 when Hiro realizes that Raven has just killed Lagos.--He has just finished meeting and talking with Lagos and while he left with negative thoughts in his head he was still intrigued by Lagos and had had the desire to talk to him more--and now he was dead and it says: He (Hiro) is beyond astonishment as he stands and stares at Lago's corpse. All the emotions will probably come piling in on him later, when he goes home and tries to sleep. And as we see later, he is unable to sleep. I forget what page it is on exactly--but, YT also shows vulnerability when making delivers she at times will be fearful of her surroundings.

This book is absurd...or is it?

How does the book Snow Crash make me feel? Confused. Curious. This book is absolutely ridiculous, yet in some ways it seems plausible! Pizza delivery is controlled by the Mafia. The military is privately owned. You have to pay the cops. Apartheid is enforced in some neighborhoods. What the hell is this...Capitalism on steroids?! Where is the author Neal Stephenson taking me?

Feeling empathy for the character Y.T.:

“Better take her uniform--all that gear,” the second MetaCop suggests, not unlewdly. The manager looks at Y.T., trying not to let his gaze travel sinfully up and down her body...She unzips her coverall all the way down below her navel. Underneath is naught but billowing pale flesh. The MetaCops raise their eyebrows. The manager jumps back, raises both hands up to form a visual shield, protecting himself from the damaging input. “No, no no!” he says. Y.T. shrugs, zips herself back up (53-54).

Y.T. is young--15 I believe. Her mom does not know she’s a courier who spends her days harpooning speeding automobiles to travel from point A to point B, delivering parcels via skateboard. She is in jail for delivering Hiro Protagonist’s pizza on time. She is in jail essentially because she did the Mafia a favor. She knows that if these cops want to see her naked, she had better comply without acting vulnerable. She can’t afford to be weak. She must keep them on their toes, just like the cars on the highway. Y.T. shouldn’t know all this! Poor thing! What kind of society leads 15-year-old girls to abandon all their innocence and embrace such danger? Stephenson doesn’t give Y.T. any other options. Her life is normal. Even now, right now, teenagers are addicted to sex, drugs, and violence. Priests have sex with children. If priests do it, surely cops do as well. The more I think about it the more realistic Y.T. and her situation become. Stephenson’s futuristic society is not that far off.

The bathroom thing:

OUR SPECIAL LIMITED FACILITIES--THRIFTY BUT SANITARY
STANDARD FACILITIES--JUST LIKE HOME--MAYBE JUST A LITTLE BETTER
PRIME FACILITIES--A GRACIOUS PLACE FOR THE DISCRIMINATING PATRON
THE LAVATORY GRANDE ROYALE (186).

That’s right. You have to pay to use the bathroom in this book. The consumer gets exactly what they pay for. You want a cheap deal? Use the shitty bathroom (literally)! You want a butler? Fork over the money and we’ll give you one! This all seems absurd--paying to use the restroom and having multiple choices, but then again, as Stephenson quietly points out, it’s only capitalism. Now that I think about it, in most places I have to pay to get a tampon, so paying to relieve one’s bladder could be next.

How far away is Stephenson's America? Or is it already here? I'm really not sure anymore.

Blog 5

While reading Snow Crash, I can't help but feel sorrow, sadness, and a sense of fear for a far majority of people who live in this futuristic, 21st century America. To sum America up in this story, it isn't America!!! It is, instead, broken down into many, many sections which are run by big corporations, powerful individuals, and corrupted governments.

On page 26, it says, "There are somewhere between six and ten billion people [on Earth]. At any given time, most of them are making mud bricks or field-stripping their AK-47s. Perhaps a billion of them have enough money to own a computer; these people have more money than all of the others put together." How can I not feel anything but sorrow for the majority of these six to ten billion people? They are building mud bricks for their homes or fighting in wars killing each other when only 1/6 to 1/10 of the world has more money than the other remaining fraction of the world put together! Poverty and unsuitableness in the world is still a huge concern in this future world. On page 26, it says, "These are slum housing, 5-by-10's and 10-by10's." People, in **America** of all places, are now living in slum housing because they don't have enough money. Besides poverty being an issue in the world and America, racism still exists. On page 32, a sign on a gate into a section of America reads, "WHITE PEOPLE ONLY. NON-CAUCASIANS MUST BE PROCESS." It's sad to see that racism still exists in America in the future.

Not only do the non-equal economic classes and settings these people live in make me feel sorry for them and scared for them but so do the situations some are put into. For example, Y.T. is a fifteen year old girl. While making it to Greater Hong Kong with Hiro, a jeek throws a hand grenade at her (page 94). How scary is it to think that in this future America, people are throwing hand grenades at people, even if these people are fifteen year old girls?! This makes me feel sorry and scared for Y.T. and what she may have to experience in her daily life.

As far as me feeling empathy at some point in this book that I have read so far, I can't really feel it. I haven't been put into any situations in this novel that some of the characters are, but I can understand how some people may feel empathetic for a character. For example, I can see how some feel empathetic for Y.T.'s mom. On page 94, it says, "Mom works for the Feds. Feds don't make much money, but they have to work hard, to show their loyalty." Plenty of people have worked hard for little money to show their loyalty to their employers or to people that they require something from. An example could be someone working for a drug lord or a guerrilla leader. This person may have to fight for this leader to simply get food and not be killed by the leader's supporters. So they would be able to relate to Y.T.'s mom working simply for loyalty.

Blog# 5: Snow Crash

I'll start with the words of L. Rob Rife:"Shit, if I took time out to have an opinion about everything, I wouldn't get any work done". :)
I like the idea of an alternative virtual reality "The Metaverse", where people can do whatever they like without suffering any consequences, have relationships, kill other people in sword fights, do something that helps release a negative energy. The whole idea of an alternative reality that people can use as an outlet from the constraints of Reality is very relevant, considering a popularity of video games in the modern world
I think the name of the personages like Y.T.(Truly Yours), Hiro Protagonist (Greatest sword fighter in the world) reflect their personal characteristics.. Y.Y. is a good friend and partner, who always trying to help ("I can do that. Open the hatch"). Hiro Protagonist seems like the one of the prominent figures,a leading character, and a champion, who is always trying to do the right thing for people around him (helping Y.T. to escape from the jail).
I was really shocked by the cold and cynical expressions of L. Rob Rife on pages 110 and 111, where he compares United States with "whale straining krill from the ocean". "The function of the Raft is to bring more biomass... They come here, they get decent jobs, find Christ, buy a Weber grill, and live happily ever after.." Here L. Rob Rife sounds as a true cold and constantly calculating capitalist, who doesn't know anything about humanity, moral values, and other wonderful and meaningful things that makes life of a normal person happy and fulfilling. He (L. Rob Rife) looks at people as at biomass that could be used for making money. Apparently, the character of Mr. Rife is not surreal, and that is a typical capitalistic way of thinking.
So far, I'm enjoying this reading despite a few shocking expressions. Also, I've found interesting that he illustrates people from Tajikistan and Abkhasia, which are republics of the former Soviet Union, as primitive and uneducated, that wasn't objective at all. Such nonobjective judgment questions the credibility of Neal Stephenson as a writer, because it reflects his political views and reveals the specific audience he is trying to target.
I deeply emphasized with Hiro in the passage on the page 58: "So when his mother visits him in the Metaverse, looking tan and happy in her golfing duds, Hiro views that as his personal fortune. Through this passage I learned that he is a loving, caring, and respectful son who put well being of his parents above everything else. He doesn't care that he lives in a "shithole", as long as his mother is doing well, and as long as he has a "Metaverse", "and in the Metaverse, Hiro protagonist is a warrior prince."

Blog 5: Snow Crash

First, this book makes me feel all sorts of things, mostly annoyed with the language and bluntness that Stephenson uses. His languages makes him and his characters, especially Hilo seem arrogant. To get a little more specific let me bring you to page 56 where he begins to introduce Juanita, Hilo's ex-girlfriend. In creating this character or talking about her he purely refers to the thoughts that Hilo has about her. At first he talks about how she was a "dour, bookish, geeky type who dressed like she was interviewing for job as an accountant" - to me this made me immediately disassociate myself with Juanita as a character. And then later he goes on to talk about how she is actually a genius and this made me feel a little uncomfortable with my own feelings. Because, after all I rejected the geeky girl and like the genius girl - I confirmed for myself that I should never judge a book by its cover.

Also, during the same time as Hilo is talking about Juanita he is speaking about Army life and states a quote that is often very true in reality "there is a certain small town that grows like a boil on the ass of any army base" - My feelings in reaction to this quote were actually those of humor because I find that there are these little shitty towns outside of every army base that are the armpit of America. Within a few paragraphs this book has be ashamed at myself to laughing - very unusual.

Another passage that I found very interesting, was a passage on page 58 where Hilo says "Military. Black kids didn't talk like black kids, Asians didn't bust their asses to excel in school. White kids...didn't have any problem getting along with the black and Asian kids" In this one simple quote Stephensen brings to light many of the stereotypes of today - If only we could all be "military"

To be honest I found it hard to have empathy for that characters in the book because they novel just seems so fake to me... this world that Stephensen is describing is so far from my own reality that I find it hard to imagine. If I had to pick a point I would refer back to the story of Juanita - page 59 - when it describes her getting pregnant a very young age. As weird as the passage is, I think that any woman has empathy for another woman that gets pregnant when she doesn't want to be - well at least if the other woman is not a complete moron.

Don't be mad that I wrote from the beginning of the book, I was the first to post! And thats really as far as I have gotten so far :)

Posting Assignment #5 (due Sunday 10/25, 11:59 P.M.)

Thus far in class we've talked a lot about reading and writing and telling. Only this week, though, did we start talking about feeling. Feeling, as we saw, is key to how Aristotelian tragedy works: if the audience doesn't FEEL pity and fear for the tragic hero, s/he will not develop an empathetic relationship with that character, and therefore will not take his/her side, and will not experience catharsis when s/he ultimately experiences catastrophe. Feeling, I will argue, is equally important to other kinds of literature. (That is, an author writes in a specific way, in order to provoke some kind of feeling in the reader. If you're not thinking about this in terms of your own writing, you should!)

So, in this week's posting, I'd like you to consider the following:

How does Snow Crash make you feel? What do you feel while you're reading it, and how does Stephenson makes you feel that way?

In your answer make reference to the way Stephenson creates:
1) at least one character,
2) at least one space/place/setting, and
3) at least one moment of empathy (cite a specific passage).

And pick your examples carefully: they are EVIDENCE for your ARGUMENT about how Snow Crash makes you feel and how Stephenson makes you feel that way.

And again, let's please not all pick examples from the beginning of the book. That gets really boring to read...

Two last thoughts: a) if you're anything like me, this book may make you feel a whole lot of different things all at the same time -- that's perfectly acceptable; just describe this set of feelings and then start thinking about how Stephenson does it; b) we have not formally discussed the concept of TONE, but it is something I imagine many of you are familiar with. If you are, you may want to consider what the tone of Snow Crash is; a text's tone has a lot to do with how we feel about it.

it is impossible to be a good person and live in a capitalistic system...

it is impossible to be a good person and live in a capitalistic system. in such a capitalistic economy, the typical stereotype of the most successful people is that they are mean and cheat people out of things to get what they want. it is basically an "every man for himself" dilemma. in this book, Shen Teh is said to be a very "good" person. She proves this over and over again with her kind gestures of providing not so good people food, money, and shelter with nothing in return. everyone of the town takes advantage of Shen Teh and she finds herself in many tough situations because she is afraid to turn down people's wants. one of my favorite lines in this book comes from almost the very beginning on page 11 when the first god says to Shen Teh, "hesitations do not count if you overcome them." i think that in most of her situations, Shen Teh hesitated on her decisions to help the people. many times she hesitated and it would have gone in her favor to turn the other way but because of her good nature, she would rather have the other people be happy rather than herself.
the mix between helping people before yourself and counting on other people to succeed does not go together. Shen Teh is a perfect example of this. She relied on Shui Ta (her cousin) to take away all of the bad situations that were happening to her. Shui Ta started to help in the beginning for a while but in the end, it was Shui Ta that also ruins Shen Teh's life once again.

It is impossible to be a good person and survive in a capitalist system

As a disclaimer I do not agree with this resolution. Since this is an assignment please take anything said below as a false statement being made for the sake of a grade. This blog posting does not reflect my personal opinion or the truth as I see it in any way.

As shown in the reading The Good Person of Szechwan it is impossible to be both a good person and successful in a capitalist economy. We can see this in the case of Shen Teh. Even when the Gods give her a head start by investing in her with money, she struggles. In one of the opening scenes of the play it shows her using the money to buy up the tobacconist shop. Here she is unable to make ends meet without depending on the charity of someone else. Also she is unable to show people without money the charity that she would like to show them. One example in particular is her run in with the carpenter. Here there is some discrepancy over who exactly owns the shelves in her store. One might make the argument that it was Shen Teh’s responsibility to read the fine print when she made the purchase of her store, but that would be incorrect. If she irresponsibly did not read through her contract then she should not have to pay the consequences. After all, if the carpenter were a good person he would just extend out her payment due date. If he were an exceptionally good person then he would have just forgiven her debt all together. We look at this situation that Shen Teh gets herself into and it is easy to see why it is impossible to be a good person and succeed under a capitalistic economy. A capitalistic economy requires such things as accountability and reward for hard work and ability. How are people supposed to be expected to deliver such things and still be good people? After all, as good people we all know that rewards should be given based on need rather than merit.

Some might say that Shen Teh should work harder to be a good business person. If her business prospered, wouldn’t she then be able to lower her prices for the needy? Perhaps even hire some of these desperate people as paid employees? I think not! As all good people know, a good person does not hold out for some “greater good,” to be a good person means to be a good person here and now, not later. These points clearly show that Shen Teh is a good person and consequently she could not succeed under a capitalistic economy because of her good nature. Not because of her lack of business savvy or irresponsibility.

It is impossible to be a good person and survive in a capitalist system.

It is impossible to be a good person and survive in a capitalist system. In the reading I thought Shui Ta is a good person but he is actually not at the end. He helped his cousin Shen Teh a lot in the beginning, he helped her to run the shop, to kick away the bad people who lived in the shop, and help her to arrange a wedding so she can pay the expensive rent, but at the end he is a bad guy who tried to sue Shen Teh’s tobacco factory. Let me get back to my point, whast’s the definition of being a good person? Helping people out what they need, care about others, not being selfish, just like Shen Teh, but I think she is being too nice. There’s one point that I feel like she doesn’t have her own idea, she follows people blindly. During one play, Sun and Shen Teh are arguing Shen Teh’s marriage with Shu Fu, after Sun persuade Shen Teh that she should married the one whom she loved. Shen Teh then agrees to marry Sun.
The reason I think the good person Shen Teh can’t survive in a capitalism system is that she relies on people too much, she relies on her cousin Shui Ta a lot so she can succeed in the tobacco business, if she doesn’t have her cousin, she will be giving free stuff away, rice and tobacco, she is a person that doesn’t know how to say no. that’s really bad, people can take advantage on her easily.
Being kind is absolutely a good thing for everyone when it comes to relationship, but if you are talking about surviving in a society and earn money, I’d say it’s quite hard.

Blog 4

From this book, the three gods seem to define a person who is “good” as someone who puts the well being of other people before themselves. For this assignment, I will be a position that supports the resolution. It is impossible to be a good person and survive in a capitalist system.

In this play, Shen Teh becomes the character that is defined as good through various acts that include giving away free tobacco to the poor and sheltering the homeless. However, these kinds of actions all the time will make it impossible for one to survive in a capitalist society. Let’s take the example of Shen Teh giving away free tobacco. Shen Teh has realized already that the tobacco businesses don’t get very many customers, according to previous business owner Mrs. Shin, and that she needs to raise money for rent. Giving away the product that she is supposed to be selling doesn’t help pay for the rent by the deadline which could cause her to eventually lose her business. Just like the woman had said, “If you want to hang onto your shop, you’d better be able to refuse sometimes.”

Sheltering the homeless seems like an easy way to be a good person at first, but it eventually had brought up its own issues. First, there was the issue of having some of Shen Teh’s belongings broken. There was also the issue of guilt by association when one of the people Shen Teh was housing decided to steal from the bakery.

Agreeing to let the pilot use the 200 silver dollars she had just gotten is another act of kindness that will also make it impossible for Shen Teh to survive in a capitalist society. The deadline for the rent was coming up very soon and not being able to pay would cause her to lose her entire business.

blog post #4

One question that I want to pose before we go on is can one be good and still do bad things? The conditions in the city wouldn’t allow Shen Teh to do the right things but she was still considered a good person. The circumstances in the city were the cause for why she did bad things. It wasn’t her fault, the circumstances and the economy is to blame for her wrong doing. If people were given a chance like Shen Teh had got from the gods they would be able to do good things like Shen Teh did when she bought the tobacco shop on the first paragraph on page 13. When an economy has a capitalist view the businesses have the freedom to do what is good and don’t have restrictions such as other people telling them what to do and what to believe. The individuality allows people the freedom to do what is right. I guess for the most part however, in order to be a good person it seems that you may have to live in poverty versus working your way up the corporate ladder. As you climb the corporate ladder it seems to get harder and harder to maintain “goodness”. We see that as she goes on in the corporate world she needs to compromise what is right in order to stay afloat. However, somehow in the end she still remains good. It seems to me it is implied in the book that the good is within the heart and comes from the heart rather than from the action itself. She knew what she had done wrong and wasn’t proud of it. This attitude of her heart made her good in the eyes of the gods. If this is truly the case then being good can happen anywhere despite how hard it is. Is goodness truly found within the heart? Or is our heart selfish and greedy? Or both?

Combination of good and evil!?

Clearly, being a Good is a very generalized subject, but as it was clearly stated in this book by Bertolt Brecht:”…the world cannot go as it is. No one can stay on earth and remain good”. As I begun my journey in the book of Bertolt Brecht “The Good Person of Szechwan”, I had the same question for Gods as Shen Teh “How can I be good when everything so expensive?” Again, we still need to define what is being “Good” means?
For Shen Teh being Good means: helping people in need, being honest and honorable in deeds, making all the necessary sacrifices for people we love, and yet she fails. She helps people in need and ends up being in trouble. She earns love of some, and becomes grotesque for others, but despite all the cruelty of the reality she still manages to have a kind heart
On the contrary, the opposite personality, Shui Ta (more capitalist version of Shen Teh), manages to keep the shop out of financial and legal trouble and plays by the rules of the reality. In time, he turns the tobacconist shop into factory, provides jobs and income to people in need, and creates greater Good.
So, who creates greater Good, Shen Teh with her love and kindness, or Shui Ta with his practical approach?
Kindness and willingness to help others are wonderful and admirable, but “The unfortunate fact is that the poverty in this city is too much for any individual to correct”. Transformation of Shen Teh into Shui Ta was absolutely necessary in order to proceed with Good Deeds. Shen Teh and Shia Ta complete each other in their journey of building Good, Shen Teh creates Good and Shia Ta finds resources for it.
So, my position is: it is NOT impossible to be a good person and survive in a capitalist system, as long as you following the principles of the cruel reality.
Obviously, cold and practical personality of Shia Ta serves him well. It keeps him out of trouble and leads him to prosperity. But he doesn’t have any friends and people hate him. Also, I don’t think he would prosper if it wasn’t for goodness of Shen Teh. “People don’t like coming to you. I expect they started by waiting Shen Teh to come back..”
Despite the fact that caring and supporting personality of Shen Teh fails her in terms of survival, but she makes many friends: “Shen Teh’s friends will never give up the search for her. The good person is not easily forgotten”.
So, Shen Teh and Shui Ta need each other. Warmth and kindness of Shen Teh attracts people to the shop and cold practicality of Shui Tah keeps the shop going, and keeps goodness spreading all around.
So, there is no Good without Evil, and there is no Evil without good!

It is POSSIBLE to be a Good Person in a Capitalist Society

In the Good Person of Szechwan you can see that it is possible to be a good person in a capitalist society. There are three main people who I feel are good people throughout the play because of the deeds they do for others when expecting nothing in return. You will see that in the end looking out for others needs in front of your own can have benefits. You will not always succeed in monetary means but you will be richer in different aspects of your life.
The first person I want to look at as being a good person in this society is Shen Teh. At the beginning of the play when Wang is going from house to house trying to find a place for the gods to stay she openly offers her home for them wanting nothing in return, even though the gods do offer her money. This also ties in with how Wang is a good person. The gods came to him for a place to stay and when he couldnt provide one for them he walked all around the town in search of someone who could. After being turned down multiple times he never gave up and finally stummbled upon Shen Teh who opened her home to them. Wang never got anything out of helping the gods find a house but he knew that he had done a nice thing.
Shen Teh uses the money that she gets from the gods to buy a shop from Mrs. Shin. She things that Shen Teh is a bad person and despite this, Shen Teh provides rice for Mrs. Shin's children becuase she really cant afford to buy food anymore without having her store. Shen Teh also gives shelter to people who come into her store looking for a place to stay, not asking anything of them. There arent any advantages for her when doing this. She also gives away food and cigarettes to people who need or want them even if they dont have the money to buy them. There was also an example of Shen Teh going into a store and buying things that she didnt need just so she could support the owner of that store. You can see that she is a very unselfish person and she only wants the best for everyone else. You should always do unto others as you would want them to do unto you, becasue you never know when you could be in their shoes.
Another example of a good person is when Shui Ta gives Sun work in his factory. He was going to have to go to jail because he was converting 200 silver dollars. Suns mother, Mrs. Yang pleads with Shui Ta to not sue and to give her son a job. Out of the goodness of his heart, benefiting nothing from it he gives him work. He knows that his cousin Shen Teh thinks very highly of him and is willing to give him a chance. She believes that the gods will repay him.
So when looking at this play you can see that it is definately possible to be a good person in a capitalist society if you arent soley just going to look out for yourself.

It is impossible to be good and stay good in a capitalist system...

Bertold Brecht offers incontrovertible proof in The Good Woman of Setzuan that to expect goodness of any person who lives in a capitalist society is unreasonable. The demands of the religion portrayed in the story are very similar to most religions: honor your father and mother, speak only the truth and do not covet your neighbor's house, yet Shen Te, alone in the city and having grown up in the country finds herself faced with the same challenges as any immigrant from rural to urban life - impoverished, alone, without any prospects for marriage and without the references required to enter into an honest business, Shen Te sells the only product she has, her body.

When Shen Te tells the gods that her willingness to host them should not lead them to believe that she is good - because of her prostitution - the gods offer a highly qualified and seemingly forgiving answer when First God says, "these thoughts are but, um, the misgivings of an unusually good woman! (14)." Equivocation is woven throughout The Good Woman of Setzuan and serves to demonstrate how the rules of religion, ethics and economics in a capitalist system depend from the exigencies of the moment and the position of the person who must make the problematic choice. Gods, it seems, may sidestep their own rules when it suits them; the gods tell Shen Te that her economic inability to be and remain good are not in their sphere, "we never meddle with economics (14)," yet they proceed to to give her more than one thousand silver dollars and admonish her, "don't tell anyone! The incident is open to misinterpretation (15)."

Endowed now by the silver from the gods, Shen Te makes an honest attempt at being a good woman in a town full of irreligious and dishonest characters. The competition faced in the capitalist system by everyone Shen Te meets becomes obvious immediately, each person stepping forward to take more than they deserve while claiming that they are being robbed. After agreeing on a price for the tobacco shop, the seller, Mrs. Shin, returns to beg rice and silver from Shen Te asserting that Shen Te was, "robbing me and my innocent children of their home (16)," in an attempt to squeeze more out of the deal; Shen Te has been identified by Mrs. Shin (and subsequently by most other characters in the play) as having a kind heart and no head for business - the feeding frenzy begins immediately and Shen Te has gone into debt - despite the windfall from the gods - before the end of the first scene. This type of kill-or-be-killed, winner-takes-all economic darwinism is the heart and soul of capitalism, yet the gods demand honesty and kindness as the standard for being and staying good.

The paradox set up by goodness as dictated by the gods against the capitalistic drive to win at any and all cost - especially at the expense of those who are weak - is too much for Shen Te and she finds that the exigencies of the situations she faces requires her to create an alter ego. Only by leading a double life and allowing the needs of each moment to dictate which character she must be - hard Shui Ta, or kind Shen Te - is this person able to survive. This requisite schizophrenia is proof of the argument that the only way to be and stay good in a capitalist system is to be two persons, to speak two languages, to have two faces and lead two lives which, as is shown, can not last forever.

Good people in a capitalist system

It is possible for a person to be a good person and survive in a capitalist system. There are examples of people being good and still working within the capitalist system. A prime example of people being good is when you look at the old couple who own the carpet shop. ShenTeh goes to the shop of the old couple to buy a shawl. As she is trying on the shawl the old woman tells Shen Teh about the hole at the bottom on the garment. Disclosing that there was a hole to Shen Teh shows how the old woman was being nice and honest. She could have tried to sell the garment without telling Shen Teh about the hole. The old woman could have put the opportunity of making a profit over being honest about the damage to the shawl.


Another example of the old couple being good people is when they offer to give the 200 silver dollars to Shen Teh. They believe in her and are happy to assist someone that is so kind to others. When Shen Teh questions them about lending her money they say they rather give it to her than to her cousin. Capitalism thrives on doing good business. It is clear to the couple that where business in concerned Shen Teh cousin would be better suited to give the money to. With his shrewd business since and ability to gain the upper hand it makes more since to give the money to Shui Ta. Giving him the money would give the couple a higher chance of getting their money back. The couple chooses to give the money to Shen Teh not because of her head for business but for her heart for the people. If capitalism was a barren place where good people and actions are impossible to find then how does one explain the old couple. The old couple would not have been so kind and generous to Shen Teh if there was not a place of good people in a capitalist system.

A quick note...

I'm a bit disconcerted by the overemphasis on the first couple of scenes in these posts. Yes, they are important, but Brecht goes much further in his exploration of these issues. The first two scenes are just the introduction.

If you haven't posted yet, do make sure to think about the WHOLE PLAY when you make your arguments. Scenes 8-10, in particular, are really important. And for everyone: if you haven't...ahem...read the whole play yet, please do so before Wednesday.

Blog #4

There is obviously more than one debate within the resolution that it is impossible to be a good person and survive in a capitalist system. For instance, what does it mean to be “good?” If good is defined as having the characteristics of one who is unselfish and constantly giving, it is indeed impossible to be a good person and survive in a capitalist system. The entire play “The Good Person of Szechwan” is devoted to finding the last few good people in town. Shen Teh is reluctant to accept her description of “good” by the gods simply because she hesitated before letting them lodge at her place (page 10). Private property ownership, business, and competition is much more complex than something as easy as lending a stranger a bedroom, and mere hesitation for the act makes the main character question her “goodness.”
The play is clearly supporting the notion that it is impossible to be good and survive in a capitalist system. Shen Teh is just too selfless to succeed with her tobacco business. If the business were expected to succeed, she wouldn’t need to create an alter ego. The character of her “cousin” represents every quality necessary to survive the system. Shui Ta is symbolic of Shen Teh’s official entrance into the capitalist world. Before her cousin comes along, she gives rice to the hungry, lodging to the homeless, overpays the poor, etc. Shui Ta reveals the first bit of sternness that is hidden within Shen Teh. His first line in the play is a command to the family that is always at Shen Teh’s place, the family she was so kind and giving too before she put on her mask. “She wishes me to tell you that now I am here she can no longer do anything for you.” From that point forward, any attempts at being “good” could not relate to the success of the business, and would therefore only be seen coming from Shen Teh (page 24).
The play also represents the dwindling of good people once they enter the system. With more and more success, Shen Teh slowly stops coming around. The good side of her is lost beneath the mask of Shui Ta (or the complexity and competitiveness of the capitalist system). Shui Ta forgets the importance of good virtues as the business finds more opportunities.
Therefore, as represented by the double-character of Shen Teh, it is impossible to survive the capitalist system and be good, or continue to be good.

Capitalism and Good People

Negative: It is possible to be a good person in a capitalist society, and there are many suggestions in Bertolt Brecht’s The Good Person of Szechwan that support this statement.

The first piece of evidence is surprisingly obvious and can be seen in the first couple of chapters; she is the first and only person to allow house room to the gods. The story opens up to us learning that she is inherently good. Though she had other plans that night that would have given her money and were necessary for her survival, she decided to allow the gods houseroom with barely a hint of regret towards her decision.

Shen Teh is a person of obvious morality. She helps those in need, she makes exceptions for those that are poor, and does what she can to help others before worrying about herself. Her main purpose after obtaining the tobacco shop and money from the Gods is to see if she can be truly a person that lives up to the expectations that the gods set down. She not only begins off on the right foot, taking pity on those who cannot feed themselves, but decides that helping others is more important than the business she owns right now.

Even when Shen Teh decides that an alter ego is necessary, she does it so that she herself can remain a good person. The effort and thought that she puts into keeping her shop running while still being able to help the poor people of Szechwan makes her a decent person. She doesn’t entirely give way to her alter ego, and she still is seen as herself at points in the play. For her, it’s about maintaining some essence of her good self while still reaping the benefits of her alter ego’s flourishing business. In The Good Person of Szechwan, there are many ways that showcase how someone can be a good person in a capitalist society. Shen Teh is a shining example of someone who can.

It is IMPOSSIBLE to be Good and Survive in a Capitalist System

It is IMPOSSIBLE to be a good person and survive in a capitalist system (based on private property, business, and competition). Evidence of this is found on pages 1-36 (which are all the farther I have read so far, making this a bit difficult). While Shen Teh may be a good person, it does not look like she is going to survive if she keeps letting everyone exploit her. Similarly, it seems like Wang, the water-seller, may be a good person, but financially he probably won’t survive. He says on page 3 that “utter poverty is the rule in our province,” and “when [the water] is plentiful I earn nothing.”
There is lots of evidence that Shen Teh is a good person. We can see that she is good early on in the book as she provides the three gods with shelter for the night when no one else in the town would do it. She lets everyone sleep in her shop and she gives them free tobacco. She agrees to pay the carpenter a ridiculous amount of money because she feels bad for him and his family. She is kind to people who are mean to her; Mrs. Shin threw her out when she couldn’t afford the rent, but Shen Teh still gives her rice every morning for free.
There is also evidence that her goodness will make it impossible to survive in the capitalist society in which she lives. Her goodness is taken advantage of by pretty much everyone except her cousin, and will most likely be her downfall, making it impossible to survive. The Woman is right when she says, “[Shen Teh] can’t say no. You’re too good, Shen Teh. If you want to hang on to your shop, you’d better be able to refuse sometimes.”

Good People + Capitalist Society = Possible.

I am taking a stance to say that I am against the resolution and do believe that good people can survive in a capitalist system.

Treat others as you would like to be treated—sound familiar? Why must it be any different in a capitalistic society? The golden rule must still be golden, even in the capitalistic society. Yes, most people are only looking out for themselves—but, those who care for others around them will succeed in many more ways, not only monetary.

In Brecht’s “Good Person of Szechwan” there are many examples of ‘bad people’ leading the visiting gods to search high and low for any good people—Shen Te is the singular good person that they find; given the name ‘Angel of the Slum’ because of her care for those around her ie. She gives rice to her neighbors and lets everyone that she has ever met live with her. She is giving of her time, her money, her shelter, her food, her love—she gives to the point of exhaustion (therefore calling in an ultra-ego to help her maintain her business). While, it is apparent that Shen Te has hardships through the book, she chooses to maintain her goodness. Which as we see is something she saw as a young girl; she says to Yang Sun when she first meets him: Once, when I was a little girl, I fell, with a load of brushwood. An old man picked me up. He gave me a penny too. Isn’t it funny how people who don’t have very much like to give some of it away?
-- It was obviously impressed upon her memory that those who can not monetarily afford to—still give and care for others.

There are multiple individuals or ‘bad people’ who glom onto Shen Te’s new business and living area—and in the slums were housing is hard to find, they cram themselves there-- inviting everyone that they have ever known to come as well. They are using Shen Te and they use everyone around them, they give nothing of themselves and expect everything to be handed to them, even near the end of the book they are surprised to here that Shen Te’s cousin (herself with a mask on!) would expect them to work for their stay. Even her fiancee ends up being a bad person, only using her for her money--These examples of bad people, using those around them, stealing, lying---trying to pressure Shen Te into lying about her past—these are the ones who end up working for her in the end.

And though Shen Te feels she needs to play the part of her cousin to be able to survive—she is still true to herself and helps others and giving them the chance to work. While we don’t see a set ‘happily ever after’ in the book, it is open to the interpretation that Shen Te did the best she could with the money gifted her from the gods (we shan’t fail to mention because of her good deeds) and I believe she will continue to be rewarded it for it in life. They will see that Shen Te is alive and that her cousin did not kill or kidnap her and things will continue to grow—because, of the good karma and cycle that Shen Te has started moving with the giving of the little she had.

I believe that we must help each other out for things to be good at all---good people foster a healthy environment enabling success even in a capitalistic society.

The Good Person of Szechwan

Before I state my position, I bring your attention to the resolution for the upcoming debate: “It is impossible to be a good person and survive in a capitalist system (based on private property, business, and competition).” Both sides of the debate will revolve around central questions relating to signifier and signified: 1) What does it mean to be a “good” person? and 2) What does it mean to “survive” in a capitalist system?

Position: Affirmative. It is impossible to be a good person and survive in a capitalist system. The students participating in the upcoming debate undoubtedly come from different religious backgrounds, so for my purposes “good” is defined by the Ethic of Reciprocity, otherwise known as The Golden Rule, which is stated in one form or another in various world religions. In addition, to “survive” in a capitalist system will not simply mean “to not die." Survival will refer to one’s ability to 1) receive payment in exchange for goods and services, 2) own property, 3) sustain one’s basic needs and 4) make a profit on one’s goods or services--creating a monetary cushion in case of unforeseen circumstances, good or bad.

In The Good Person of Szechwan, by Bertolt Brecht, the character Shen Teh represents “good” while her alter ego/ “cousin” Shui Ta represents “evil." That is not to say that Shen Teh is always good and Shui Ta is always evil--I am generalizing for simplicity’s sake. On page 112 of the novel Shen Teh attempts to tell the gods about her alter ego, but they dismiss her concerns saying, “The good [Shen Teh], of who no one speaks anything but good!...A misunderstanding! A few unfortunate incidents. One or two hard-hearted neighbors! A little too much zeal!” Those hard-hearted neighbors, on the other hand, have accused Shui Ta of corruption, exploitation, and deceit--definitely not conducting himself in accordance with the Ethic of Reciprocity (107). I should also like to recall an incident where even the gods say Shui Ta is a bad influence. On page 42 Wang tells the gods about Shen Teh’s charitable projects, and about Shui Ta taking advantage of the carpenter, to which the gods reply, “Then that cousin must never again enter [Shen Teh’s] house.” This implies that Shui Ta’s involvement in Shen Teh’s affairs is seen by the gods as a threat to Shen Teh’s goodness.

Backtracking, after the gods gave Shen Teh more than enough money to pay her rent, she bought the tobacco shop, and planned to sustain herself and improve her life through her business. Enter Capitalism. She soon found that her rent needed to be paid six months in advance, the shop had hidden debts and her neighbors were relying on her to supply them with food and shelter. Despite the monetary risk of owning a business, Shen Teh opened up her store to the less fortunate, earning her the title “Angel of the Slums” (42). Her good doings almost cost her her shop though, which is made apparent through this metaphor, “The dinghy which might save us is straightway sucked into the depths: too many of the drowning snatch greedily at it” (22). The dinghy represents her store--now in jeopardy because she could not establish her business as a reliable income before her resources were drained by the needy. In order to save her business, Shen Teh creates her alter ego Shui Ta. He’s not a humanitarian. He’s a businessman and he makes her business expand, earning himself the title Tobacco King of Szechwan (102).

To tie all this together, before capitalism came into the picture there was no Shui Ta. Shen Teh was nothing more than a poor prostitute with a good heart. Shui Ta was created to keep capitalism in place once it had been established, because the charities of Shen Teh were putting the business at risk. Even at the end of the play, Shui Ta has not been eliminated:

Shen Teh: But I must have my cousin!
The first god: Not too often!
Shen Teh: Once a week anyway!
The first god: Once a month: that will be enough (113)!

This demonstrates that one cannot be truly good if one is to survive in capitalism.

It IS possible to be good in a capitalist system

The Good Person of Szechwan gives plenty of examples on that it is possible to be a good person in a capitalist system. The two obvious characters that are good in a capitalist system in this play are Wang and Shen Teh.


Wang is a water-seller. When water is scarce, he travels long distances to bring water back to the town for people to drink. Wang also gives compliments to others, particularly Shen Teh. He tells the gods she is a good person and does good deeds when she gets nothing in return. At the beginning of the play, Wang is given the task to find housing for the gods. Wang asks several people in the town to house the gods for one night. Despite all the rejections, Wang continues on to ask people in the town because he wants to please the gods. Eventually, he comes across Shen Teh who says that she will allow the gods to stay in her place.

Shen Teh is the most obvious character who is good in a capitalist system in the play. She took the gods in when no one else would, and in return, was rewarded with money to buy a shop. Shen Teh bought the shop from Mrs. Shin. After Shen Teh bought the store from Mrs. Shin, Mrs. Shin calls Shen Teh a bloodsucker for taking away her place of work, but nonetheless, Shen Teh still gives her rice to feed her children. Soon after, an old couple walks into the store and ask for housing. Even though it has no advantage to Shen Teh, she offers them to live in her place. Eventually, an unemployed man walks into the store. He asks for cigarettes but has no money to buy them. So Shen Teh gives him a few cigarettes without accepting any money. Later, a man and a pregnant woman walk into the shop asking for a place to live for awhile. Shen Teh allows them to live at her place with, once again, no advantage to herself. When Shen Teh is at the park, she notices a man trying to hang himself. She takes time to convince the man not to kill himself and offers him 200 silver dollars so he may begin to get a job as a pilot, and she had never met the man before. While at the park, it begins to rain and Shen Teh sees Wang. Despite her ability to get something to drink from the rain, she buys water from Wang so he may have some money. Several times Shen Teh offers housing to people which has no benefit to her, gives people free things, gives money to people she does not know so they may do what they want, and buys things she may not necessarily need so that the seller may get money. Her and Wang are both perfect examples of good people living in a capitalist system.

It is immposible to be good in capatalism...

I am arguing for the statement that it is impossible to be a good person and survive in a capitalist system, throughout the book we can find much evidence for this. First, I will look at the whole basis for the book... prostitute meets gods, gods giver her money, prostitute starts business... then the prostitute is exploited by everyone she knows. After Shen Teh starts her business and rightfully buys the store from the previous owner she is bombarded by that owner for being "bloodsucker" because the women she bought the store from has no money to feed her children and although Shen Teh has been giving the woman rice everyday it is still Shen Teh's fault, according to the woman, that she does not have a place for her children to sleep or eat. Because Shen Teh has been a good person and has been giving the woman rice ever morning the woman then feel that she can exploit Shen Teh and asks her for money... which Shen Teh denies, that is when she is called a bloodsucker. From this it is obvious that Shen Teh is trying to be a good person in a capitalist society and is only getting yelled at in return.

Furthermore, after owning the store for a very little amount of time a family that Shen Teh used to lived with decides to take advantage of her kindness and moves everyone and their brother, literally, into her shop. There was no reason that Shen Teh had to accept these people into her shop because when she was living with them they made her pay rent and as soon as she was out of money they kicked her out. But out of the kindness of her heart she let them live in her shop, they got in the way and prevented her from running her business well. They even made their little kid steel from the bread shop across the street, which became associated with Shen Teh's shop. From these two examples we can see that is is pretty difficult to be a good person and servive in a capatalist society...if you are a good person you will have to taper your kindness or you will get taken advantage of at every and undoubtedly not survive.

Obvious Abuse of Blog

We are throwing a party at our house on Friday the 8th (that's tomorrow, today or a while back depending on when you read this). The more the merrier, bring your friends, we can act out some Boal (or not). Anyway... we charge $5 for entertainment and all the drinks are free. We start letting people in at 9.30 p.m.

The house is on the corner of 4th st SE and 11th ave. See you all there.

John

Posting Assignment #4 (due Sunday 10/11, 11:59 P.M.)

Next week in class we will be having a formal debate. (No worries if you've never done one before; I'll explain the rules and everything. It's quite fun.) A debate begins with a resolution -- a statement of an opinion on a given issue. Then that resolution is debated by two teams: one team argues for that resolution, and the other team argues against it.

The resolution we will be debating is:

RESOLVED, that it is impossible to be a good person and survive in a capitalist system (based on private property, business, and competition).

Your post this week will take the form of a position paper. In a position paper, you state your position at the outset and then spend the rest of the paper defending your position. In this particular position paper, you will either argue for or against the resolution above, depending on your last name:

If your last name begins with Arndt-Mayer, you will write a position paper in favor of this resolution. That is, you will argue that it is indeed impossible to be a good person and survive in a capitalist system.

If your last name begins with McAllister-Wharton, you will write a positon paper in opposition to this resolution. That is, you will argue that it is NOT impossible (i.e., that it is possible) to be a good person and survive in a capitalist system.

***Please defend ALL OF YOUR ARGUMENTS using evidence from The Good Person of Szechwan. No personal stories or outside sources this week! This is an exercise in analysis and argument, to prepare for the in-class debate. It doesn't matter if you don't agree with the position you've been assigned -- the point is to practice your argument skills!

Blog #3 (late, I know; interesting, I hope)

Being the elder statesman of our class, I have had more experiences, more jobs and more shape shifting in my life than most (certainly, not all) of you. I have lead a life that a chameleon might envy and have had the extraordinary good fortune to be able to experience work, class and language from an array of angles. Let me begin with a brief rundown of the positions I have held and let you take them in for a moment:

• Soldier
• Waiter/bartender/barrista at various places, from no-star to four star
• Front Desk Manager - four star hotel
• Innkeeper at a Napa Valley start-up B&B
• Regional Sales Director for a hotel company
• Volunteer Firefighter
• I.V. Technician/E.R. Technician
• Construction Manager (large, multi-million dollar projects)
• Drug Dealer
• Prisoner
• Deck Hand on Tow Boats (yes, those ugly barges on the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers get moved around by people on boats)
• Headhunter/Executive Recruiter
• General purpose consultant (presently)
• Student (always)

I'm certain that I have left out a few things, but I believe that my point about the variety and, well, strangeness of my life has been made. I am here to tell you all that class, language and work are absolutely determining factors of the shape of our worlds. What makes a Physician a Physician? Is it the lab coat? Is it the stethoscope? Is it the Porsche in the driveway? Is it the fact that she knows exactly what amniocentesis, medial phalanges, hydrocephalus, or sarcoma with metastases mean and what to do about them? Of course, it is all of these things in our western culture. In Europe, the cultural image of a Physician is something else and it is different in Turkey and Tasmania, too; for many of us House or E.R. or other media have formed our ideas of what it means to be a Physician.
What is likely the same in each of these places and cultures is the language, the class and the work. While the names of the above procedures, pathologies and bones can be translated into various languages, they all mean the same things. Furthermore, the actions or the work of the physician is the same - to heal as best as possible given the available technology and medicines. The class of a physician, finally, while not guaranteed to be wealthy in every culture, is very likely to be proportionately higher than those of more commonly held jobs. Yerbol may disagree because of his experience, but I will wager that, even in Kazakhstan, Physicians are paid and fed better than a garbage man or a seed separator.
The language of a profession is what makes it inaccessible to non-practitioners of any given job. Lawyers spend years learning how to manipulate and use language within their professions, as do Physicians, Architects, etc. An inmate, too, must learn and use the terms of art of her environment; if you don't know what shakedown, rat, punk, 'hole' or the SHU are, you might find out the wrong way. The words of professions, of cultures, of classes are the hallmarks and the agreed upon terminologies that create culture and are simultaneously created by culture. Our words are our weapons or our healers, our recriminations that create friction, anger, calmness, unity. When Odysseus insists that his crew sail past the Island of the Sun, having just saved his ship from certain destruction between the Scylla and Charybdis by following the warnings of Circe to the letter, one crewman pointed out that Odysseus set an impossibly high bar for them. An example of Odysseus' mortal nature, despite his god-like strength, stamina, fighting ability and courage can be found in his inability to convince Eurylochus and the rest of the crew to continue to follow the instructions given to Odysseus by gods:

You're a hard man, Odysseus. Your fighting spirit's
stronger than ours, your stamina never fails.
You must be made of iron head to foot. Look,
your crew's half-dead with labor, starved for sleep,
and you forbid us to set foot on land, this island here,
washed by the waves, where we might catch a decent meal again.
Drained as we are, night falling fast, you'd have us desert
this haven and blunder off, into the mist-bound seas?

Eurolychus portrays himself as a 'regular Joe' being abused by his above-average leader; he claims no blood of the gods in his line, he fights honestly and fairly and he follows orders (most of the time). But, in a class statement that appeals greatly to the rest of the hungry men on the ship, he sets himself apart and says that enough is enough, thereby garnering agreement from enough of the rest of the crew to force Odysseus to stop and in the end, eat of Helios' herd, much to their ultimate distress. Does any of this 'appealing to the lowest common denominator' sound familiar? Joe the Plumber can't afford health insurance, but doesn't want to pay an extra $300,000 a year in taxes so that illegal aliens can get basic health care on the backs of his poor workers. The 'regular Joe' argument worked for Eurolychus and it works today, if you aren't listening closely for the lessons from the gods.

Maybe it's language, maybe I should just shut up

Language and work. Now there's a good one. I've worked a slew of different jobs; some less abusive than others. One particular one that falls into the category of "what was I thinking working there for so long" was a banquet waiting job in a beautiful 14th century monastery in Cologne, Germany. We would host weddings and the like with shifts that would run at least 10 hours averaging about 13. We didn't get scheduled breaks but were "allowed" to drink on the job.

One day I was rather sick of being treated like a slave (pay was terrible) so I said to some of my co-workers "I don't need this job!"

They were pissed. They looked at me in a way the water might look at the water wheel. It did not go down well with my colleagues who felt I was distancing myself from them. I did not mean to imply they needed the job while I didn't. I felt strongly that the more we got yelled at, the more apparent it had become to all of us that this place was not a career move and we should all get out or at least complain before becoming complacent. As a classmate of our mentioned in her blog post, we have two choices, either we believe when someone who tells us we suck at our job (can't dance) or we don't and tell them to go suck it.

I did the latter. The others were still so far away from knowing they had a choice that they took it as a personal insult and felt I was looking down on them. It didn't help that my demeanor, language, ethnicity and family background put me in a position where from a classist point of view I would traditionally have been inclined to look down. Let's not forget though that I was working the same job they were and my feelings toward our working conditions never affected my work. Compared to the language used in Housework conversations in my family, while still warm, were far more correct in nature. Crude language was not that common until my brother and I started cursing all the time (boys will be boys), but we knew when it was inappropriate. We learned from Terkel's Working, that sometimes strong language can be used to express respect. Paraphrasing here he said that some guys say "good morning" and you say "good morning" back. Others say "fuck you" and you say "fuck you" back. The ones you say "good morning" to, you don't like. Those you say "fuck you" to, are your friends. It's signifier and signified all over again.

[edit:]

A more striking resemblance to our reading would be to Eurylochus' plea to his comrades that dying of hunger is no fun. He gets up while his boss isn't around and tries to rile up the crew. In doing so he damns them all. I got up and tried to talk to my comrades while the boss wasn't around, telling them that we were all hungry. I didn't have the street cred with my comrades though; I couldn't pull it off. The problem was that due to my language, they perceived me differently, not as one of their own. In their eyes I was more like Odysseus, going through the same motions and pains as the crew but for very different reasons. Odysseus' words are echoed by Eurylochus when he says "Listen to me, my comrades, brothers in hardship." but because the crew feel a stronger connection with Eurylochus, they break their word with Odysseus. The words were the same, the class of the person saying them changed and with it their weight in the mind of the crew.

Blog Post 3

I have never before thought about the relationship between economic class and language. After reading these two pieces it is impossible to ignore the stark contrast between the way language is used. I would say I come from a middle class family as most people in America would say. Both my parents work but there was always someone there to take me and my brother to school, pick us up, and do homework with. My father made it very clear that family comes first. He never missed a recital, game, or academic decathlon. I think that is greatly based on the fact that he did not have someone able to do that for him.
He comes from a single family home and his mother was unable to go see him play football or meet with teachers. The father in Housework is withdrawn from his children. They have their place and he has his. When speaking to them it is always curt and detached. There was never a “how your day”. When Monica is doing her homework he speaks about the things she is learning and how he never learned them. My father is very active in my education and has been from the beginning. He was the parent I practiced spelling and vocabulary words with. I feel that my dad is so hands on because he did not have a parent that was able to do that for him. My father is also very affectionate with me and my brother. I have never once wondered if he loves me. There were no words of encouragement from Willy. Willy gave demands to Monica.
Maybe if my grandmother had had the economic stability she would have had the opportunity to be more active in my father’s life. She would have been around more to go to games and to say I love you; instead of my dad only seeing my grandmother on Sunday mornings when they went to church. I guess language in this situation is more body language. My grandmother may not have sat down and had dinners with my dad but she went to work to make sure he was provided for. In this case of my dad and grandmother language is not spoken through words but shown by actions.