Rushkoff, I've Given You All and Now I'm Mr. Nobody

“We cannot go back. That’s why it’s hard to choose. You have to make the right choice. As long as you don’t choose, everything remains possible.” (Dormael, Mr. Nobody). The film Mr. Nobody abandons a traditional, linear narrative structure by allowing the viewer to explore the several different lives lead by Nemo Nobody, the last mortal alive. Avoiding a linear narrative by creating many potential storylines through one person’s life, Director Jaco Van Dormael captures the endless possibilities one is presented throughout one’s lifetime.

One of the first scenes consists of Nemo as a one hundred and seventeen year old man who is attempting to recollect his past. At the age of nine, Nemo was faced with an impossible choice- to live with his mother or to live with his father after they separated. The two possibilities are explored, both of which are followed by the possibilities of marrying three different women in three different lives, and subsequently his deaths which are caused by either driving off of the side of the road into a lake, crashing his bike into a tree, and even by being inside of a combusting spaceship on a mission to spread one of his three wives’ ashes on Mars after she was blown up on their wedding day. If any part of this plot sounds confusing to you, then Dormael is doing his job of directing a nonlinear narrative correctly. Douglas Rushkoff states, “There is plot-there are many plots- but there is no overarching story, no end. There are so many plots, in fact, that an ending tying everything up seems inconceivable, even beside the point.” (Rushkoff 34). Rushkoff, referring to the many different aspects in the plots of fantasy, exemplifies the endless options that the fantasy genre leaves to the reader. Although the different possible outcomes of Nemo’s life (or lives) are shown, Dormael does not directly give the viewer a straight answer as to which life was really led by Nemo. By leaving this aspect of the plot unsaid, Dormael follows both the ideals made by Rushkoff and the theme of his film: there are endless possibilities.

Pulp Fiction, a film described by Rushkoff as an example of a nonlinear narrative, has a lot in common with Mr. Nobody in terms of multiple story lines. Rushkoff explains that, “On one level we are confused; on another, we are made privy to new kinds of information and meaning. The reordering of sequential events allows us to relate formerly nonadjacent moments of the story to one another in way we couldn’t if they had been ordered in linear fashion.” (Rushkoff 34). By showing the events that happened in each and every one of Nemo’s lives, Dormael demonstrates to the viewers how the idea of multiple storylines allows them to fall together in order to create one general plot by parting from the idea of linear narratives.

Another way that Mr. Nobody differs from a traditional narrative is not only the fact that it shows the past, but how the future is described. Due to the discovery of how to create renewable cells, humans accomplish their goal by becoming immortal. Because of this immortality and Nemo’s lack of it, the movie features events taking place in year 2092, and therefore exemplifies to the viewer the ways in which people communicate in the future. Each immortal, along with their stem cell compatible pig, watches Nemo recollect on each life he lived. By the time one of the futuristic eye-like cameras film Nemo saying his last words, the whole world is alerted with holograms and every television zeros in. 

Mr. Nobody explores the themes shared with Douglas Rushkoff in Present Shock by pushing the boundaries of traditional narratives. Dormael explores the different ways in which narratives can be told in Mr. Nobody, a movie that holds multiple paths, bending the ideals of traditional narratives. “Every path is the right path. Everything could have been anything else and it would have just as much meaning.” (Dormael, Mr. Nobody)

Works Cited

Mr. Nobody. Dir. Jaco Van Dormael. Perf. Jared Leto. Pan-Européenne, 2009. Film

Rushkoff, Douglas. Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now. N.p.: n.p. Print

The Art of Feasting

While reading A Moveable Feast, one could say that Hemingway didn’t care much for what others thought; he was straightforward and by looking at what he said about the authors when he wrote the memoir years later, one can assume that he might have taken advantage of their friendships by deliberately pointing out their faults to the reader. For example, Hemingway often described Scott Fitzgerald as a drunkard to the reader by making statements such as, “[But] when he was drunk he would usually come to find me and, drunk, he took almost as much pleasure interfering with my work as Zelda did interfering with his. This continued for years but, for years too, I had no more loyal friend than Scott when he was sober.” (Hemingway 46).  By talking negatively about those he is observing, Hemingway takes the risk to clear up any potential miscommunications with the reader and instead establishes an honest tone. According to Hemingway, “you had to be prepared to kill a man, know how to do it and really know that you would do it in order not to be interfered with.” (Hemingway 28). The ways in which Hemingway was brought up most likely had an effect on his blunt style and lack of concern for others.

Ernest Hemingway’s writing style could very well be described as untraditional, as it is laid back compared to the style of other authors. His subdued tone could be either a product of the time period in which he wrote the book, his depression, or a combination of the two. It is also possible that Hemingway's series of electroshock therapy is a contributor to the ways in which his perception of time is altered, or how he remembers information in general. “There are many sorts of hunger… Memory is hunger.” (Hemingway 57).

We study how information is communicated through language in class, and that is why I believe we read A Moveable Feast. By studying the ways in which Hemingway chose to make connections with the reader, we can attempt to make similar connections with our readers in the future.

Works Cited

Hemingway, Ernest. A Moveable Feast. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1964. Print.

Three Cheers for Education

            The most innovative thinkers are labeled as “stupid” or “lazy” simply because their standards don’t meet the requirements that public schools create through demanding grades and rejection of creative minds. Public schools isolate free thinkers from their peers, and prevent others from thinking innovatively as well. Postman’s narrative of Consumership and Economic Utility are the culprits for the lack of critical thinkers in the public school system.

The main idea of the god of Consumership is for the public educational system to create some type of tangible item for students to think of as a goal; the only way to achieve this goal is to follow an endless list of rules and memorize key terms that, odds are, the students will never see again. Postman describes the god of consumership’s intentions as, "Whoever dies with the most toys, wins." (Postman 33). Teaching these students to live at least the first thirteen years of their lives as academic robots for the sake of having something that proves their dominance to others causes the students to eventually stop living up to their initial life goals, subsequently following the long, bland path that their educators laid out in front of them.

The god of Consumership is closely related to the god of Economic Utility. Postman states, “[the god of Economic Utility] postulates that you are what you do for a living,” (Postman 33). One thing that the public school systems tend to put into these adolescences’ heads is the idea that a person cannot be happy without financial success.  A three year old does not want to become a doctor in order to learn how to repair the fibula; they want to live up to the successful standards they are presented with throughout their lives.

The public educational system inhibits students from learning for the sake of gaining knowledge, and instead implants the idea that financial success is the equivalent of happiness.

Works Cited

Postman, Neil. The End of Education: Redefining the Value of School. New

York: Knopf, 1995. Print.

Frankenchild

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein gives us a clear example as to why knowledge shouldn’t be forced upon children. For those who have read Frankenstein, you know that the creature Victor Frankenstein creates has many child-like qualities; for that reason, the creature should be viewed as a child throughout this post. As the first of his species, the creature doesn’t know right from wrong, especially because Victor didn’t teach him anything. The creature then ventures out and learns on his own.  

According to Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s philosophy, "[a child] is first an animal, then a savage, then a solitary like Crusoe, and only at adolescence is he a human being in the full sense of the world.”(Boyd 153.) Throughout the novel, the creature hits every point of Rousseau’s idea of development, if only he lived to reach the final stage. For instance, after being created, the creature acts upon his instincts and murders Victor’s brother. The next stage mentioned in the philosophy is solitude. Rejected by Victor, the creature lives in the woods, secluded from society. There he learns survival and social skills, as well as linguistics.

“Rousseau also believed that the child should be allowed to remain in its ‘naturally’ innocent state as long as possible.”(Gaarder, 312.) Mary Shelley exemplifies the consequences of a child that does not remain in said state for an appropriate amount of time. Even after developing some type of understanding of the world, the creature continues his killing spree by murdering both Victor’s best friend and his wife.

Rousseau explains the journey of adolescence, and concludes that a child that moves on too quickly into adulthood can cause catastrophe. Mary Shelley proves his points even further throughout the novel. After studying Rousseau’s works, the reader should have a clear understanding of how his beliefs correspond with the creature when reading Frankenstein.

Works Cited

Boyd, William. The Educational Theory of Jean Jacques Rousseau. New York: Russell & Russell, 1963. Questia School. Web. 17 Sept. 2015.

Gaarder, Jostein. Sophie's World: A Novel about the History of Philosophy. New York: , Straus and Giroux, 1994. Print.

Bill of Wrongs

On the day of May 2^nd, 2011, many were cheering at the news of someone’s death, and I struggled for a long time to understand why the end of another person’s life would be considered a celebration. At the age of thirteen, I didn’t have a full understanding of who Osama Bin Laden actually was; All I understood was what other people labeled him as: a terrorist. In no way was killing around three thousand people acceptable, but the happiness I saw on the day of Bin Laden’s death stuck with me since.

            Nine days after the events of 9/11, George W. Bush, with a respectful and calming tone, reassured American citizens by explaining actions that were to take place in order to protect them from future mishaps with Al Qaeda, with statements such as, “on behalf of the American people, I thank the world for its outpouring of support.”(Bush). After establishing a bond with trust with his listeners, Bush goes on to make demands for Taliban- “Close immediately and permanently every terrorist training camp in Afghanistan, and hand over every terrorist, and every person in their support structure, to appropriate authorities.”(Bush).  The transition from welcoming to assertive insured the death of Osama Bin Laden ten years later.

On the other hand, Noam Chomsky considers the hypocrisy of America’s choices by using a harsh, yet informative tone. Looking at the situation from a different standpoint, he states, “It might be instructive to ask ourselves how we would be reacting if Iraqi commandos had landed at George W. Bush's compound, assassinated him, and dumped his body in the Atlantic (after proper burial rites, of course).”(Chomsky). By putting himself in a similar situation that the people of Pakistan were in, Chomsky proves to the reader, with a satirical tone, the irony of the situation.

Noam expands upon the irony by comparing Pakistan’s Law with our Constitution. “[Pakistan’s Law] requires a colonial inquest on violent death, and international human rights law insists that the ‘right to life’ mandates an inquiry whenever violent death occurs from government or police action.”(Chomsky.) Chomsky establishes the peaceful system used by the Pakistani to contradict our actions during Operation Geronimo. “The Sixth Amendment guarantees the rights of criminal defendants, including the right to a public trial without unnecessary delay, the right to a lawyer, the right to an impartial jury, and the right to know who your accusers are and the nature of the charges and evidence against you.”(law.cornell.edu). In other words, according to our Bill of Rights, Osama should have had the opportunity to go through a trial like anyone else.

Chomsky and Bush share neither the same tone, nor the same approach to Operation Geronimo. By considering the impact Al Qaeda had on the United States, Bush’s purpose is to protect his citizens; Chomsky, on the other hand, criticizes decisions made in the past that are considered counterproductive in the Bill of Rights.

Works Cited

Bush, George W. "President George W. Bush's Address to Congress and the Nation on Terrorism." 20 Sept. 2001. Speech.

Chomsky, Noam. "Looking Back on 9/11 a Decade Later." (n.d.): n. pag. Web.

"Sixth Amendment." Sixth Amendment. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Sept. 2015.