No life in outer space

For centuries, man has always wondered if he is alone in the entire universe, questions like who built the pyramids in Egypt or the Stonehenge in England have always been in a question in the minds. The term extra terrestrial has always fascinated us, and there have been many movies and book made and written simultaneously, and there have been claims of people who saw U.F.O (Unidentified Flying Object), and strange sized people, but till date no government in the entire world has not approved to these claims, and moreover most of them have been always declared as hoaxes or a misunderstanding with the high powered stealth planes.But the fact of the matter is that whatever technology and scientific research we have, it shows that is impossible to have a life existence apart from Earth for various scientific reasons, as whole scenario of existence of aliens and life in outer space is just based on hoaxes, stories and assumptions.The whole theory of existence of an alien life form exist on the cynical question, that if humans and other living creatures were born in this planet, then it is also possible for other life organism to take origin on other planets. The whole episode of existence was well supported, which led to the formation of the famous SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence), but this organization which has a basis on scientific evidences on the basis of radio and optic frequencies have failed for more than four decades to establish even a single contact, or even to prove the slightest amount proof of living organism existing on other planets.Even after their failure in detecting any life forms, the staff of SETI is still hopeful; this can be evident from the following:  Ã¢â‚¬Å"If we are alone, then that’s extraordinarily remarkable in such a vast universe. Personally I don’t think we’re that special†(Courtesy: Prof Seth Shostak, SETI institute)On the basis of the amount of technology we have, if we have to assess the planets in our own galaxy, existence of life seems to be a very distance vision, as scientifically it cannot be proved that our solar system has any existence of an alien life form. If we take the instance of Mercury, being so close to the sun, it is impossible to have any possibility of having life, because of the intense heat. Moon which is supposed to be our satellite has no atmosphere, thus it is again impossible for life to exist without atmosphere.The gassy planets in our solar system, provides inhabitable conditions, as there is no solid land for life to exist, critics have removed theories of possibility of life existence in Jupiter’s moon, but still no evidence has been proven. Pluto is very far away from the sun, making it a very cold planet, thus eliminating the chances of existence of life in it. Mars is the only planet that can be considered, because of a percentage of its nature like earth, but Mars has a very harsh atmosphere compared to earth, and it doesn ’t have Ozone, theories are implicated about life in mars, but the â€Å"Viking† which was send 26 years ago and the â€Å"rover†, which was send now hasn’t given any substantial proof to it.In fact SETI itself admits that the sightings done on earth were hoaxes or illusions which is confirmed by the followingâ€Å"Most of the sightings can be explained as natural phenomena or aircraft or balloons or other mundane stuff. I still haven't seen any evidence that any of these sightings involve alien spacecraft†.(Courtesy: Prof Seth Shostak, SETI institute)The truth is since we have can only base the theories of existence of life on other planets, is by look at our habitable conditions, and if we look for planets for conditions like ours, then it is next to impossible, to find the same amount of habitable conditions, as earth’s life was created by a no. of permuted combinations, which is further substantiated by the following:â€Å"Intelligent l ife on earth – product of series of extremely fortunate accidents†(Courtesy: â€Å"Life in the universe, are we alone†, Retrieved on February 10th 2008 by site http://physics.uoregon.edu/~jimbrau/astr121/Notes/Chapter28.html#solsys)If theories still have to be raised then it would be of life existing beyond our solar system, but our technology hasn’t reached so far that we can actually scan the entire universe for life and with the amount of high technology we seem to have, it seems till date, life on other planet is not possible, as all the planets that have come under the scrutiny of possible existence of life do not match earth’s habitable condition, and thus are discarded from any possibility.Aliens and extra terrestrial’s life forms have always and will continue to be a subject of awe and belief for many, and when it comes to science, it only asks for proofs and subjective evidence to accept any theory that would bring light to any evide nce of life in outer space.Reference:1)         http://physics.uoregon.edu/~jimbrau/astr121/Notes/Chapter28.html#solsys2)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Nicholas backman,†Life in outer space?†, http://www.virtualsciencefair.org/2007/back7n2/Report.pdf.3)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   SETI: Search For Extra-Terrestial Intelligence, http://www.faqs.org/docs/air/taseti.html4)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   www.astobiology.arc.nasa.gov/roadmap/g1.html No life in outer space For centuries, man has always wondered if he is alone in the entire universe, questions like who built the pyramids in Egypt or the Stonehenge in England have always been in a question in the minds. The term extra terrestrial has always fascinated us, and there have been many movies and book made and written simultaneously, and there have been claims of people who saw U.F.O (Unidentified Flying Object), and strange sized people, but till date no government in the entire world has not approved to these claims, and moreover most of them have been always declared as hoaxes or a misunderstanding with the high powered stealth planes. But the fact of the matter is that whatever technology and scientific research we have, it shows that is impossible to have a life existence apart from Earth for various scientific reasons, as whole scenario of existence of aliens and life in outer space is just based on hoaxes, stories and assumptions.The whole theory of existence of an alien life form exist on the cynical question, that if humans and other living creatures were born in this planet, then it is also possible for other life organism to take origin on other planets. The whole episode of existence was well supported, which led to the formation of the famous SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence), but this organization which has a basis on scientific evidences on the basis of radio and optic frequencies have failed for more than four decades to establish even a single contact, or even to prove the slightest amount proof of living organism existing on other planets.Even after their failure in detecting any life forms, the staff of SETI is still hopeful; this can be evident from the following:  Ã¢â‚¬Å"If we are alone, then that’s extraordinarily remarkable in such a vast universe. Personally I don’t think we’re that special†Ã‚  (Courtesy: Prof Seth Shostak, SETI institute)On the basis of the amount of technology we have, if we have to as sess the planets in our own galaxy, existence of life seems to be a very distance vision, as scientifically it cannot be proved that our solar system has any existence of an alien life form. If we take the instance of Mercury, being so close to the sun, it is impossible to have any possibility of having life, because of the intense heat. Moon which is supposed to be our satellite has no atmosphere, thus it is again impossible for life to exist without atmosphere. The gassy planets in our solar system, provides inhabitable conditions, as there is no solid land for life to exist, critics have removed theories of possibility of life existence in Jupiter’s moon, but still no evidence has been proven. Pluto is very far away from the sun, making it a very cold planet, thus eliminating the chances of existence of life in it. Mars is the only planet that can be considered, because of a percentage of its nature like earth, but Mars has a very harsh atmosphere compared to earth, and it doesn’t have Ozone, theories are implicated about life in mars, but the â€Å"Viking† which was send 26 years ago and the â€Å"rover†, which was send now hasn’t given any substantial proof to it.In fact SETI itself admits that the sightings done on earth were hoaxes or illusions which is confirmed by the followingâ€Å"Most of the sightings can be explained as natural phenomena or aircraft or balloons or other mundane stuff. I still haven't seen any evidence that any of these sightings involve alien spacecraft†.(Courtesy: Prof Seth Shostak, SETI institute)The truth is since we have can only base the theories of existence of life on other planets, is by look at our habitable conditions, and if we look for planets for conditions like ours, then it is next to impossible, to find the same amount of habitable conditions, as earth’s life was created by a no. of permuted combinations, which is further substantiated by the following:â€Å"Intelli gent life on earth – product of series of extremely fortunate accidents†(Courtesy: â€Å"Life in the universe, are we alone†, Retrieved on February 10th 2008 by site http://physics.uoregon.edu/~jimbrau/astr121/Notes/Chapter28.html#solsys)If theories still have to be raised then it would be of life existing beyond our solar system, but our technology hasn’t reached so far that we can actually scan the entire universe for life and with the amount of high technology we seem to have, it seems till date, life on other planet is not possible, as all the planets that have come under the scrutiny of possible existence of life do not match earth’s habitable condition, and thus are discarded from any possibility.Aliens and extra terrestrial’s life forms have always and will continue to be a subject of awe and belief for many, and when it comes to science, it only asks for proofs and subjective evidence to accept any theory that would bring light to any evidence of life in outer space.Reference:1)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/life/looking/index.shtml2)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://physics.uoregon.edu/~jimbrau/astr121/Notes/Chapter28.html#solsys3)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Nicholas backman,†Life in outer space?†, http://www.virtualsciencefair.org/2007/back7n2/Report.pdf.4)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   SETI: Search For Extra-Terrestial Intelligence, http://www.faqs.org/docs/air/taseti.html5)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   www.astobiology.arc.nasa.gov/roadmap/g1.html

Drama Evaluation Example

On 12th of December we went to Stifford Clays Primary and performed our piece to 180 year 4’s and 5’s. When we got there we had to straight away bring in our set and therefore had to quickly work out our staging. We all agreed to have the boards on a slant so that we could get changed and await our queues without the children seeing us as if they did it would ruin the illusion. We did this and got changed into our costumes in 20 minutes which I thought was really good and professional.As a group the performance went really well, we all knew our queues and our lines and worked really well together, the costume changes were done in time and nobody came out of role, there for a bit of empty staging but I think this was due to the fact that we were in a new performance space and were not use to it. People were not coming off the right side and therefore ended up having to cross the back of the stage, but it was not obvious as it was in character.As an individual I think the performance was ok, the children booed as I came on as the teacher as they thought I was still the Wicked Witch, I think I did change each characters characterisation but the costume wasn’t different enough and I think they thought I was the Wicked Witch in disguise. Also when I did come on as the Wicked Witch they did not stop booing me, according to the video they booed me for a full minute.I was not expecting such a huge reaction and I just did what I thought my character would do and tell them to ‘be quite’ and ‘shut up’ I also did hand gesture of them talking, it was really tough to deal with as every time I went to talk they just started booing again. I then decided to stand there and wait for them to calm down which they eventually did. Although it was annoying I think the booing was a good sign as they believed in my character and really hated me as much as they were supposed to. As the teacher I think I did well in adopting a different role and I changed my voice and body language making everything precise.The audience interacted with everything and more and seemed to have a lot of fun. When Catherine and I did the chase scene the children loved the water gun being fired, as I ran through they grabbed my cape which I had to react to again in the way the Wicked Witch would I told them to ‘Get off before I turned them into frogs’ from this I learnt that my teacher character needs more of a disguise, that I need to hold onto my cape while running through the crowd and to react to the boo’ing at first but then stand there and wait or them to quieten down. When I melted as the Wicked Witch I melted to the side of the stage and therefore had to stay there for a little while, which I didn’t mind as I needed to catch my breath anyway, I had to pick the right time to move off the stage and therefore picked the time when Sophie and Jess were running as I though the audience’s attention would be on them, it turned out it was and I did pick the right time to slip off.When we were at the performance we had forgotten the limbo poll and the camera and therefore had to improvise with the limbo poll and use another poll at the school, we also used Catherine’s phone to record the performance. I think as an individual and a group we met the assignment brief as we engaged, entertained and educated, We engaged the audience as they interacted with all points possible, they were entertained as they all were shouting and reacting and they were educated as when the fairy god mother asked questions they knew the answers. Over all I think the performance was really good and went really well.

Evidence-Based Practice and Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Evidence-Based Practice and Management - Essay Example As the case study argues, because of errors in medication administration, high rates of falls and decrease in staff satisfaction, EBP has now become a crucial necessity in almost every hospital. One of the ways nursing leadership began to establish an evidence based culture was by establishing shared governance councils who were to kick start the process. A specific unit was identified, which was to actively come up with a project of implementing EBP so as to impact outcomes. Fortunately, an opportunity arose with a physician driven research project, which involved controlling pain in pediatric patients outside the ICU. The unit was charged with monitoring parameters and nurse staffing. The unit started its evidence-based practice so as to meet patients’ and pain team’s needs. The staff was composed of people from all sectors, educator for the unit, unit leadership, and evidence-based practice mentor. As the case study points out, there are various systems that can be e stablished so as to facilitate staff in the evidence-based practice. The first system is to integrate evidence as criteria within the organization’s strategic plan. The mission, vision and specific goals of the organization should incorporate evidence-based decision making at the point t of care. Nurse managers should come up with tools such as guidelines, protocols, policies and procedures, all based on evidence-based practice so as assist staff in realizing the benefits associated with it. Analysis of Articles Related to the Topic According to Wilkinson, Nutley, and Davies (2011), nurse managers face many challenges and barriers in implementing evidence-based practice. Past research has pointed out that nurse mangers should play a major role in ensuring than EBP is implemented in their institutions. However, as these authors argue, the specific role has not been defined. Therefore their research aimed at finding the specific role of nurse mangers in the EBP implementation p rocess. They used case study approach where they used interviews and observation as the main data collection methods. After analyzing the data, the authors found major differences between literature and their findings concerning roles of nurse managers in EBP implementation. According to their findings, nurse managers took a passive role in EBP implementation process. The authors concluded that the main reason as to why EBP have been ineffective in many institutions is due to problems such as undefined roles of the nurse manager in their implementation process. Therefore, they pointed out that identified problems with the implementation of EBP should first be solved in order to get the desired results from the practices. According to Sandstrom, Borglin, Nilsson, and Willman (2011), the implementation of EBP knowledge obtained from literature has proven to be a burdensome one. The cause of this as the authors argue is the narrow focus of literature on a few factors that have been reg arded important in EBP implementation process. One of the factors that have been pointed as being important in EBP implementation process is leadership. Therefore, their research was aimed at conducting a thorough literature review so as to determine the role of leadership in EBP implementation process. The research findings indicated that leadership was indeed a vital factor in EBP implementa

Leadership Assessment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Leadership Assessment - Essay Example Hence it is pivotal for a manager to have the leadership ability and to possess the salient attributes of leadership. For in the current global environment, leadership is of immense importance in the sense that it is eventually the leadership skills inherent in the organizations that imbue them with a competitive advantage. So as to assure an optimal organizational efficiency, it is a must for the managers deployed at varied levels in an organization to possess leadership abilities (Storey, 2007, p. 73). Q1: Analyze the leadership style(s) of a senior executive (CEO, CFO, COO, Director, etc.) in your current or previous organization who made a positive or negative impact on you. It is a known fact that organizations simply cannot succeed unless they are endowed with teams that are skilled, motivated and competent. In that context, as group effort and team work are imperative for organizational success, thereby the role of leadership becomes of prime relevance in organizations. Throug h good leadership, managers can motivate the employees to give way to a wholesome and supportive work environment that stimulates most of the employees to work to the best of their ability. The Chief Executive Officer is the organization I work is predominantly affiliated to a participative or democratic leadership style. Though it is he who takes the final decisions pertaining to the important issues impacting the organization, he does make it a point to invite the staff members associated with specific projects to extend their inputs and ideas (Keohane, 2010, p. 233). This approach not only extends to the staff a sense of participation, but also encourages them to perform to the best of their ability (Keohane, 2010). Besides, the participation of the concerned employees in the overall decision making process brought in a spirit of creativity and ingenuity in the overall decision making process Our CEO makes it a point to aptly reward the employees with economic and non-economic be nefits. Not only has he played a guiding role for his subordinates, but going by his participative style, he makes it a point to extend to his subordinates the opportunities for skill acquisition and growth. This not only makes the employees feel cherished and wanted, but also imparts to them a sense of control over their future. No wonder, this motivates the employees to work hard and to contribute to the best of their ability. Though, owing to the democratic leadership of our CEO, things sometimes tend to move at a slow pace, but overall it leads to better results and outcomes. Q2: Analyze the organizational structure and culture of the company for which you work (or would like to work) to determine its approach to team development, and whether that approach helped to enhance your relationship skills in the workplace. In a simplistic sense, an organization tends to be a shared platform over which individuals and employees from diverse backgrounds tend to work in cohesion to achiev e the aspired for organizational goals. Hence, each and every organization tends to have some peculiar values, rules, guidelines and policies that not only collectively constitute the organizational culture, but also determine to a large extent the eventual success and efficiency

International Trade Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

International Trade - Essay Example Electrolux is an established brand of the Company, and a mature product in its portfolio. It has gained critical acclaim for meeting most of the customers’ functional needs. Electrolux Tumble Dryer is a product of an American firm and it is sought to be marketed in India through Electrolux label as its product. The game plan is to capture the Indian market for this line of products through a well conceived Disruptive Marketing Strategy. A comparative study of all existing players in the field and observation of emerging trends with potential to impact the market in the coming few years forms the bedrock of this strategy. Thus this Document will be a crucial turning point in the Business History of the Company. The Document examines the position of Electrolux Brand in the context of the Indian Market. It also looks at the Tumble dryer for its strengths and weaknesses and their potential impact on the Indian customer preference. A study of the Market Plan reveals that the merits possessed by Electrolux Tumbler Dryers closely match the needs of a large number of Target markets. The Plan sets targets for Electrolux to penetrate the Indian Market and the ways to do so. This Document identifies some of the major points essential for making an objective analysis of the Indian Market scene with regard to the introduction of this American product. 1.1 Potential Market Size There is an assumption that the developed market of India, with its existing structural setting will control the market position for Tumble dryers. The market is composed of Manufactures from abroad producing in India, Importers, Whole sale traders and retailers. Many of the Foreign Manufacturers are also their own importers. The Wholesale traders generally have composite inventory consisting of several competing products or other allied goods of the same manufacturers. Retail trade also works on the same lines, (Koch, 2001). Some Retailers have significant presence in the retail market. Tumble Dryers are not seen sold in dependent retail shops in India because this product is not yet popular in the society. But survey shows they are willing to prepare and be ready for special orders. Independent shop owners account for about 80% of the Indian Retail Market and the remaining 20% is shared by several different channels. A review of the market in India shows that no proper distribution network is present for Tumble dryers. The potential customers are not even well informed of the existence of the product and its unique advantages. Available purchase points also do not seem to be educating the potential buyers about the product, (Huang, & Sternquist, 2007). Retail Stores in India are very few in number and the Managers do not have any effective stay in the choice of products that make up their stock in trade. International; products are not marketed in this kind of set up. They are sold through Retail Chains where centralized decision making ensures that the shops are invari ably supplied the product in adequate quantity, depending on sales. Therefore introduction of Electrolux Tumbler Dryer to the Indian market may appear to be starting with a disadvantage. Another problem is that the product requires its own, dedicated Gas supply channel.

Republic of China Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Republic of China - Essay Example What makes all of this even more amazing is how little the average westerner knows about the lives, economic, social, and political, of 1.6 billion people. Every now and again, we read in the news about how China offers a great vacation, we see a "Free Tibet" sticker on the back of a car, or we notice that our newest gadget or piece of clothing was made in China. If one reads the right newspapers, they might think that Communist China is on the verge of collapse and massive democratic reforms are just a few years away. Upon closer inspection, however, this is clearly not the case. This paper will argue that the prospects for massive democratic reforms in China are very poor. It will do this by arguing that there is very little internal economic or social impetus for political change and Chinese leaders are unlikely to be swayed by Western Nations into instituting democratic reforms. Despite the fact that the Communist Party in China will remain relatively stable into the foreseeable future, there are still many problems that the party needs to address if it is to maintain it's stronghold in China. One of the primary reasons why one may think that the Communist party is likely to become more democratic in the near future is the success of the economic reforms, which began in 1978. According to Tony Saich, the Chinese government did three very important things in 1978 which would allow for future the future growth of the economy and allow for greater interaction with the rest of the world. First, economic modernization was made central to all party work. Ideology and class struggle were down-played and policy-making became more pragmatic, summed up in the slogan 'practice is the sole criterion for testing truth' and corresponding policy line of 'correcting mistakes wherever they are discovered.' Second, despite the plenum's decision to forget about the past and concentrate on the future, the new 'practice' slogan was used both at the plenum and subsequently to reverse a whole series of previous political judgmentsThird, the plenum formed the source for a new policy direction that gradually increased the influence of market forces in the Chinese economy.4 Of course, the economic reforms were very complex and continue to evolve to this day, and include entry into the World Trade Organization. Whole books have been written about this single process, needless to say, the economic reforms have had a major impact. Author Andrew Walder writes that, China's post-Mao economic reforms have generated rapid and sustained economic growth, unprecedented rises in real income and living standards, and have transformed what was once one of the world's most insular economies into a major trading nation.5 In a speech to the Fourth International Investment Forum, Gregory Chow said Since economic reform started in China in 1978, there has been a remarkable growth in GDP, to the order of 9.5 percent per year on average. What accounts for this tremendous success To answer in one sentence, the Chinese government has adopted institutions and policies that enable the resourceful Chinese people and foreign friends to unleash their energy to develop the Chinese economy. The farmers became energetic and productive since the 1979. The township and village enterprises were the most dynamic element for growth in the 1980s and early 1990s. Many private and foreign

Managing the New Enterprise Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Managing the New Enterprise - Essay Example Raising equity finance in relation to Peter and Julie’s ideas such as from venture capitalists and business angels is advantageous to entrepreneurs. First, business angels can enable the new enterprise to achieve great success; thus, investors will realize their investments lest the business venture is doing well. Burns (2007, p. 123) argues that business angels can enable the entrepreneur to improve their business activities. Secondly, venture capital plays a significant role in driving business growth and employment activities. This is crucial because it deliverers valuable skills helps in strategy and decision making; thus enabling the company to increase their performance levels. It also allows the development of new technologies in the business and their applications; thus contributing to high productivity levels. Venture capital is not for every entrepreneur even though how profitable it would be. This is because it is not a business solving needs of an entrepreneur, but rather helping the entrepreneur to achieve high profitability or revenue levels. Moreover, venture capital and business angels are among the most compelling forces driving business economy-wide advancement to increased business productivity. The business may focus on advancing fundamental business performance means; thus, the two equity finances would be the potent forces for contributing to increased business performance. Raising venture capital and the business angle is crucial because it will enable new ventures to develop and reach their business goals successfully(Fraser and Simkins 2010, p.22). Every entrepreneur expects to create a winning business; thus getting enough capital for the business is crucial. Berman, Knight, Case and Berman (2008, p. 46) argue that it is only a few entrepreneurs who become successful in raising equity finance for managing their business. It is also only a few entrepreneurs who are able to generate equity finance and few of them can meet the ange l or venture capital fund requirements.  

Analysis of a play Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Analysis of a play - Essay Example Loman is portrayed as a representative of a middle class American who suffered with insecure material existence and isolation. Analyzing the theme, plot, structure, characterization and style of Miller’s Death of a Salesman, one can observe the plight of middle-class people in a capitalist society. Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman describes the trials and tribulations of modern American middle-class people. . Themes like isolation, reality versus illusion, and failure of American success myth, insecure family relations and the evilness of capitalism are successfully depicted in Miller’s play Death of a Salesman. Miller portrays the real life of a typical American middleclass man Willy Loman and his family, who bestows the most part of his life in a private company. Loman tries to drive the family with his maximum facility. Unfortunately, he cannot satisfy his wife Linda and his two sons Biff and Happy. Literary critics have identified the fact that the themes of failure of American success myth and reality versus illusion play a vital role in Miller’s Death of a salesman. The central character in the play, Willy Loman, fails to comprehend the real pulse of the society. Dramatist succeeds to direct the readers to think that Loman is a total failure in his personal life and the same failure leads to his disastrous death at the end of the play. As Harold Bloom comments; â€Å"This tragedy, according to Miller, is the crisis and the reality of American life† (Bloom 44). As a follower of socialist ideologies Arthur Miller harshly criticizes the evilness of capitalism through the pathetic end of his hero Willy Loman. At the end of the play Willy Loman commits suicide in the expectation that his death will be really helpful for his family. He was aware of the fact that after his death Biff will get his father’s insurance money, twenty five thousand pound by which he can enrich his business. Miller reminds the reader horribl e reality of the modern competing capitalist world that offers the value of twenty five thousand pound for a human life and his lifelong service. Loman believes in capitalist ideologies and material existence so that he acts as self-centered. In a conscious effort, Loman forces others to admit that he is an ideal family man. Loman is highly conscious about his son’s misbehavior and his failure as a businessman. It is significant for a reader to comprehend the fact that Loman always fails to advice his son Biff because, he is responsible for his son’s fall. It is merely accidental that Biff became the victim of his Father’s illegal relationship with a prostitute. Therefore, Biff’s unhealthy behavior haunts Loman like horrible nightmare. Miller’s characters are powerful and reader can see a true personality and soul in these characters. Author exposes the protagonist Willy Loman as a symbol of American middle-class people who fail to maintain a struc tured life during the depression era. One can see that Miller’s personal experiences during the depression period have a great influence on his hero Willy Loman. Capitalist ideologies make Willy a man of self possessive and self-centered nature. This self- possessive nature always prevents him to admit his faults. As such, he would scold his sons for trifles in an attempt to hide his own faults. His wife Linda

Patrilineal Descent and Postmarital Residence among the Yanomamo Essay

Patrilineal Descent and Postmarital Residence among the Yanomamo Village Growth and Division - Essay Example The Yanomamo people of Central Brazil are one of the oldest examples of the classic pre-Columbian forest footmen. The Yanomami comprise a society of hunter-agriculturists of the tropical rainforest of Northern Amazonia, whose contact with non-indigenous society over the most part of their territory has been relatively recent. Their territory covers an area of approximately 192,000 km2, located on both sides of the border between Brazil and Venezuela, in the Orinoco-Amazon interfluvial region. They communicate in various dialects but have No written language. The total population of the Yanomami in Brazil and Venezuela is today estimated to be around 26,000 people. The Yanomamo exist in small bands or tribes and reside in round communal huts. The Yanomami local groups are generally made up of a multifamily house in the shape of a cone or truncated cone called yano or xapono, which are actually made up of individual living quarters or by villages composed of rectangular-type houses .Each collective house or village considers itself an autonomous economic and political entity (kami theri yamaki, 'we co-residents') . The village is the basic sociopolitical unit and is occupied by several extended families, composed of nuclear family households. The founding nucleus of such a village consists of two intermarried pairs of brothers, their sisters or wives and their descendants. The two resulting lineages exchange their women, thus creating a number of affinal alliances. As additional lineage groups join the village community and intermarry with members of the original lineage, political pressures and internal factionalism frequently lead to the spli tting apart of the village and the establishment of a completely new community. These small tribes hold their men in high ranks. Chiefs are always men who are held responsible for the general knowledge and safety of the group's women. The males are permitted to beat their wives if they feel the need to and can marry more than one woman at a time. This loose form of polygamy is a way of increasing the population of the tribe.Each village has its own headman (pata), and one pata is usually more influential than the others. Migliazza (1972: 415) claims that the position of chief or headman is not really inherited, but is dependent on the chief having many living agnatic relatives and the ability to assert himself among them. There is some indication, however, that the office was once inherited patrilineally from father to son or from elder brother to younger brother. During times of war, a man with experience in combat was often chosen to act as war chief, an office which was not hereditary and which became inactive when hostilities ceased. Marriage among the Yanoa ma serves to bind non-agnatically related groups of males to one another in a system of exchanges involving goods, services, and the promise of a reciprocal exchange of women at a later date. All Yanoama groups, as well as their Carib neighbors, have bifurcate Merging kinship terminology for the first ascending generation, accompanied by Iroquoian cousin terminology. Patrilineal descent and agnatic relationships are considered more important than matrilineal relatives. Clans and moieties have apparently never existed among the Yanoama, but lineages have been mentioned by Chagnon (1971). In his analysis of the kinship system, Chagnon affords a central place to the local descent group-basically a lineage segment, consisting

ADHD Medications Essay Example for Free

ADHD Medications Essay With the tremendous increase in ADHD diagnosis, altercations have been emerging about whether or not ADHD medications are being overprescribed. Many people feel as though ADHD medications are needed for the condition, but are doctors just handing them out? Medications may be necessary depending on how severe the case is, but some people take advantage of it. As a community, we need to limit the amount of ADHD medications being prescribed by doctors. ADHD medications have been praised drastically for the enhancement of mental performance that is shown. People who have a more severe case of ADHD are generally more motivated to do things once they are put on the medication. Some two-thirds of all children currently diagnosed with the condition receive prescriptions for stimulants such as Ritalin and Adderall, which have been linked to addiction and psychosis (Swaine). The effects of ADHD medication vary depending on how large or small the dosage is. Theres a very small difference between the right dose and too little or too much medication, so resist the temptation to experiment on your own (Adult ADD/ADHD). The medication will keep one focused on a task without getting distracted as easily. See more: Distinguish between problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping Essay With ADHD medication, tasks can be completed a lot faster than usual because of the extra focus the medication pushes on someone. Research by the Centers for Disease Control also found that more than one in ten school-age children in the US has now received an ADHD diagnosis, amid a sharp rise in reported instances of the condition(Swaine). Although ADHD medications have positive effects, it also has negative effects. These medications can cause slowing of growth, not  only physically but mentally too. The mind may not develop as well as it usually would. Another negative effect is impaired judgment. This usually occurs when someone is unable to make correct and or right choices in real-life decisions. ADHD medications can control mood swings, but can also cause someone to be more irritable. Emotions can be controlled by ADHD medications, but can also influence someone to act out. Generally, the effects of the medications can help one control the urge to blurt out. This makes it easier to think and process words before actually saying them. In fact, there are many signs that your medication is working. They include being better able to pay attention†¦ tending to think before you speak instead of blurting things out†¦ (Adult ADD/ADHD). The sudden urge of kindness can make it so much easier to make and or keep friends. The way our minds think causes us to say things we dont necessarily mean. This will begin to push people away from one another. Although medication can control many things related to emotional effects, it can also add on negative effects. The use of ADHD medication can cause one to become very irritable towards family and friends. The majority of adults who take stimulants experience rebound effects of moodiness, irritability, and restlessness as the level of medication in their bloodstream decreases (Adult ADD/ADHD). Irritability can then lead to a negative personality change. If youre normally sunny and upbeat and you suddenly become all doom and gloom, it may be time to switch to another medication (Adult ADD/ADHD). These medications can affect the hyperactivity of an individual not only positively but also negatively. Hyperactivity within individuals who suffer from the condition can generally change, depending on the case. If one is diagnosed wrongly, there is a possibility that the hyperactivity of an individual can increase. In these cases, ADHD is mistaken for immaturity. Some people just never grow up and the immaturity rate they have makes it look like they have a hyperactivity condition. Some 6.4 million American children aged between 4 and 17 have received an ADHD diagnosis at some point in their lives, the US government scientists found (Swaine). Not all individuals diagnosed have the actual condition, but rather act as if the medication is a necessity for everyday  life. Dr. Graf said that it was now clear that American parents were encouraging the medication of their children merely to enhance their mental performance rather than to cure an illness (Swaine). The effects of ADHD medication can be very beneficial. Generally, one who actually has the condition can be less disruptive if they are put on the right medication. An individual can also be less distracted with the use of ADHD medication. Being less distracted and less disruptive can make it easier to get certain tasks completed. The use of ADHD medications continue to increase throughout the years. As a community, we must limit the intake of these medications. We need to be stricter on the behavior of individuals, but we need to decrease the amount of prescriptions being used for the condition. Looking at the positive and negative effects of these medications may cause people to stop taking the medications prescribed by doctors. Works Cited Adult ADD / ADHD. _Positive and Negative Effects of Medication_. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2014. . Swaine, Jon. Fears American Children Are Being Over-medicated as ADHD Rates Soar. _The Telegraph_. Telegraph Media Group, 02 Apr. 2013. Web. 17 Feb. 2014. .

Barley Breeding and Pest Control

Barley Breeding and Pest Control Barley represents one of the major crops grown worldwide. It is the fourth largest grown crop in the world. Barley is a short season ,early maturing grain with high yield potential which is utilized in the production of both human and animal feed. The production of 2005 was estimated to be 138 million metric tons (UN Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO). Because of its true diploidy Barley has been used as a genetic model system, along with the similarity of its genome to that of other small grain cereals. It enables genetic engineering approaches towards crop improvement. (Hensel et al. , 2008). Barley has remained a successful cereal crop because of its short growing time and ability to survive in poor conditions. Although it is grown throughout most of the UK it is often the dominant arable crop in the north and west of Britain where growing conditions are most difficult and less favourable for wheat. Barley is striking because of the long spikes that emerge from the end of each grain. These are known as awns. Barley is also easily identifiable on breezy days in the early summer when waves blow through the crop. Although barley is versatile and tolerant it is not as productive as wheat. As a result it is often grown as the second cereal in a rotation where potential yields are lower; for example a field might first grow wheat, then barley, then a break crop like sugar beet or peas before returning to wheat. Barley can also be grown continually in the same field, a process known as continuous cropping. This was relatively common in the 1970s and 1980s but is rarely if ever practiced now. Around half of all the barley produced ends up as stock feed. This is either incorporated into compound rations or rolled on farm and fed to cattle as a supplement to their forage. Barley (Hordeum vulgare L. ) is the only cultivated species. Among the wild barleys there are annuals and perennials, self pollinators and cross pollinators, and self incompatibility species that are found in nature  (Poehlman, 1987). Difficulties in the production of Barley There are various diseases that affect the barley production, like various bacterial, fungal and viral diseases. Nematodes and parasites can also hamper the barley production. Fusarium species Fusarium is a genus of filamentous fungi widely distributed in soil and is mostly in association with plants. Some species produce mycotoxins in cereal crops that can affect human and animal health if they enter the food chain. The main toxins produced by these Fusarium species are fumonisins and trichothecenes. Fusarium graminearum commonly infects barley if there is rain late in the season. It is of economic impact to the malting and brewing industries as well as feed barley. Fusarium contamination in barley can result in head blight and in extreme contaminations the barley can appear pink. It can also cause root rot and seedling blight. Lush, green fields become blighted seemingly overnight.  The factors that favour infection and development of disease in the crop are frequent rainfalls, high humidity, or heavy dews that coincide with the flowering and early kernel-fill period of the crop. Damage from head scab is multifold. It reduces yields, discoloration, shriveled tombstone kernels, contamination with mycotoxins, and reduction in seed quality. The disease also reduces weight and lowers market grade. It causes difficulties in marketing, exporting, processing, and feeding scabby grain. The fungus persists and multiplies on infected crop residues of small grains. The chaff, light weight kernels, and other infected head debris of barley, are returned to the soil surface during harvest. This serves as an important site of overwintering of the fungus. Continued moist weather during the crop growing season favors development of the fungus, and spores are windblown or water-splashed onto heads of cereal crops. Barley is susceptible to head infection from the flowering (pollination) period up through the soft dough stage of kernel development. Spores of the this fungus land on the exposed anthers of the flower and then grow into the kernels, glumes, or other head parts. (McMullen et. al. , 1997). Creating a new variety: Conventional breeding Chevron is six rowed non malting barley originating from Switzerland, and it is most widely used. This can be used as a source for the Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) as it has resistance genes for kernel discolorations. So the wild variety can be crossed with Chevron and the F1 generation can be generated. H. vulgare X Chevron F1 generation F2 generation Depending on the way the genes behave the combination produced from each cross are not to be revealed until the next generation (F2). The most likely plant is then selected to meet the breeding objective. Seeds from the best plant can again be sown in rows or plots and best plants can again be selected. This process is repeated until the best plants are not selected. This technique takes a long time but the results are bred true. Generally, awned genotypes with a short peduncle and a compact spike have faster disease spread than genotypes that are awnless, have a long peduncle, and a lax spike. In addition, short statured genotypes with a long grain filling. On the other hands hybrid breeding technique can also be used, but its just that while hybrid lines breed true year after year, the performance gains of F1 hybrids are not maintained in subsequent generations. QTL analysis can be done at every level to find out the gene where is it situated in the loci. This will give us a genetic information of the hybrids. If the QTL analysis is done the phenotype can be identified using biometrics or metabolomics. Enhanced Breeding There are various ways in which breeding can be done. Somatic hybridization, embryo rescue, double haploid breeding, genomics, MAS ,genetic modification Proteomics. Mesterhazy (1995) had described five types of physiological resistance ,expanding on the the two types of barley available. These included (I) resistance to initial infection, (II) resistance to spread within the spike, (III) kernel size and number retention,(IV) yield tolerance, and (V) decomposition or non inherently accumulation of mycotoxins. It is believed that type 1 is very difficult to because the amount of innoculum initially applied is very difficult to quantify. Molecular markers can also be used at every stage of crossing till the final generation is obtained, as in the pure lines are obtain. The use of molecular markers will help us in indentifying the gene integeration. As it is QTL Analysis done will show us the location of the gene on which loci. Different molecular markers have been used till date, so markers like RFLP, AFLP, SSR and many more can be used. Pest and disease tolerance in Barley Barley is infected with many pests and other diseases as mentioned above. The easy and the quickest option is the use of certified seeds obtained after F1 generation. There are various sprays like fungicidal sprays available which can also be used but they decrease the vigor and cause root rot. So in order to avoid these pest resistance genes can also be added in barley. That means you induce the gene already there in the pest which infects,into the barley genes,with selectable ,markers. These markers will help in future to score the gene of interest and its location. Places where these markers are not accepted ,marker free plants can be generated. This multi-faceted and cooperative approach should enable breeders to develop highly resistant barley cultivars thereby, significantly reducing if not eliminating the devastating effects of FHB both nationally and worldwide. (Rudd et al. ,2001) There are as such no problems with drought or any problem with barley, but the major one is that if it rains late the whole of the production cycle of barley is disturbed. Due to less, late or no rains only there is development of these kind of fungal diseases due to the little moisture that is left on the leaf surface. Hence if we can increase the transpiration rate or the WUE (water usage efficency) by changing the leaf area exposed to the sun ,the retention capacity will increase. Conclusion Only by working on a theory on breeding will the investigator be able to achieve real control over the organism- the ultimate aim of modern biology N. I. Vavilov So as rightly said above, plant breeding is a very efficient way to conserve the wild species as well to grow crops that are resistant to the harsh conditions and pathogens and diseases caused by them. Through plant breeding technology we try to build up a perfect plant that has all the necessary resistant genes against all the possible problems faced by a plant to grow. As seen in barley also various other methods can also be inculcated along with these and newer varieties can be introduced which have better yield.

Rights of Afghan Women Since the US Invasion Essay -- Afghan Womens R

As a result of the US invasion of Afghanistan, the issue of Afghan women’s rights came to the world stage. Through the media, populations of first-world countries saw firsthand the terrible oppression of Afghan women. One such instance was the famous picture of the â€Å"Afghan Girl† published in the National Geographic magazine, which became an international symbol for the plight of Afghan women. The United States and Afghan governments have repeatedly obstructed the progression of Afghan women’s rights, causing women’s quality of life to decline, women’s education to suffer, and women’s representation in government to be limited. Women’s rights in Afghanistan have not always been suppressed. Throughout the early 1900s to the mid-1900s, women were free to travel unaccompanied. King Amanullah constructed schools for girls and passed laws eliminating arranged marriages (Kolhatkar, 2013). In the early 1950s, the government outlawed the Islamic principle of purdah, or gender separation. Moreover, the government granted Afghan women the right to vote in 1965, a year earlier than American women, and by the early 1960s, held half of all legislative posts (â€Å"Women,† 2013). King Amanullah even made the burqa, the symbol of oppression, optional and encouraged a Western style of dress (Kolhatkar, 2013). When the Taliban came to power in 1996, all of that changed. The Taliban believed it was their duty to protect women and their family’s honor. Enforcing a version of â€Å"Sharia†, or Islamic law and drawing principles from the â€Å"Pashtunwali†, or traditional social code, the Tali ban effectively banned women from going to school, studying, working, leaving the house without a male relative to accompany them, showing any skin while in public settings, ... ...bglj Levi, S. (2009, September). The long, long struggle for women's rights in Afghanistan. Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective, 2(12). Retrieved from http://origins.osu.edu/article/long-long-struggle-women-s-rights-afghanistan Mahr, K. (2014, April 14). Waiting for the Taliban. Time, 183(14), 24-38. McCurry, S. (1984, December). Afghan girl [Photograph]. National Geographic. Retrieved from http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/ photographers/afghan-girl-cover.html Peace unveiled [Television episode]. (2011, October 25). In P. Hogan, G. Reticker, A. E. Disney, & C. Rizzi (Producer), Women, war and peace. New York, NY: PBS. Women in Afghanistan: The back story. (2013, October 25). Retrieved April 6, 2014, from Amnesty International UK website: http://www.amnesty.org.uk/womens-rights-afghanistan-history#.U0If0FzxWP8

The American Dream in F. Scott Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby Essay exam

The American Dream in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a brilliant illustration of life among the new rich during the 1920s, people who had recently amassed a great deal of wealth but had no corresponding social connections. The novel is an intriguing account about love, money and life during the 1920s in New York. It illustrates the society and the associated beliefs, values and dreams of the American population at that time. These beliefs, values and dreams can be summed up to what is termed the 'American Dream'; a dream of money, wealth, prosperity, and the happiness that supposedly came with the booming economy and the get-rich-quick schemes that formed the essential underworld of the American upper-class society. This withering theme presents itself in the novel through many of its characters. The writing style throughout The Great Gatsby is terse and though the book is depressing at times, its overall message of hope and the American dream is inspiring. The story begins when Nick Carraway, a young man, moves to New York from the Midwest to join the bond business. There, he soon becomes acquainted with his wealthy neighbor Jay Gatsby, and they become good friends. Gatsby confides in Nick and tells him that he is in love with Nick?s cousin, the beautiful Daisy Buchanan. However, she is already married to the young and successful Tom Buchanan, who is unfaithful and has an affair with poor George Wilson?s wife. ?Daisy and Tom were sitting opposite each other at the kitchen table? They weren?t happy? yet they weren?t unhappy either? (Chapter 7, pg.148). Later, Nick arranges a meeting between Gatsby and Daisy but soon after, they became involved in a love affair. It is revealed that many years ago, Gatsby and Daisy were in love, but Daisy would not marry him because he was rather poor. Gatsby, however, made his fortune and became determined to win Daisy?s heart. ? [Gatsby] wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that ha d gone into loving Daisy. His life had been confused and disordered since then, but if he could once return to a certain starting place and go over it all slowly, he could find out what that thing was? (Chapter 6,pg. 111-112). Towards the end of the story, however, Tom finds out about Gatsby and Daisy and a heated argument ensues. That fateful night, returning to th... ... intriguing way. [Gatsby] stretched out his hand desperately as if to snatch only a wisp of air, to save a fragment of the spot that she had made lovely for him? (Chapter 8, pg.153). Moving beyond style, the book pushes past the basic story line and becomes very symbolic. The characters, setting, and events that take place are all telling of the American dream in the twenties. It depicts people who let wealth determine their lives. It emphasizes how money and people?s desire for money can stand in the way of true happiness. The Great Gatsby realistically portrays both the best and the worst of human attributes and allows any reader to identify with the characters, no matter how far-fetched this might seem. F. Scott Fitzgerald?s novel is the epitome of the American literary accomplishment and a must read. In writing this novel, Fitzgerald achieved in showing future generations what the early twenties were like, and the kind of people that lived then. He did this in a beautifully written novel with in-depth characters, a captivating plot, and a wonderful sense of the time period. Works Cited: Fitzgerald, Scott F. The Great Gatsby. Simon and Schuster, New York. 1925.

Character Growth in Conrads Heart of Darkness Essay -- Heart of Darkne

Character Growth in Conrad's Heart of Darkness      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness explores the intellectual, emotional and moral growth of characters throughout the novella. This character growth has been a recurring theme in literature, with the poet William Blake, among many others, exploring theories of the movement between innocence to experience. Although Conrad does not strictly address character growth in this manner, characters that do and do not undergo psychological growth are portrayed quite differently. Those who undergo these psychological changes are portrayed favorably, that is Marlow, the frame narrator, and Kurtz. These characters throughout the novel undergo significant change, for some it is gradual (Marlow), but for others such as Kurtz, this growth or realization occurs rapidly, and almost too late. While European colonialists - characters that do not grow, or remain at the stagnant psychological level - are used to represent the anti-colonialism theme to the readers. Conrad utilizes c haracters, and their psychological growth (or lack of growth) to distance himself from the narrative and endorse or criticize many themes that would be seen as revolutionary in the context of its publication. A large gap is then depicted between the characters who grow, portrayed as "enlightened" beings, and the pilgrims and European colonialists, who are seen in a colonial point of view as perfect examples of good, however portrayed by Conrad as stagnant, "Hollow men", whose aims and ideals are criticized.       The frame narrator, although not a major character in the novella, undergoes significant psychological growth throughout the text. This growth can be broadly divided into three phases - the initia... ...hed ways of thinking, have a faà §ade of bringing culture and progress to a world devoid of these elements, yet are merely "hollow men". They are merely acting as products for the indefinable aims of colonialism and in turn, move the readership to reject their ideals, emphasize the "enlightened" (those who grow) and encourage a similar psychological journey of the readership.          Bibliography    Conrad, J. (1995). Heart of Darkness. London: Penguin Group.    Dintenfass, M. (1996, March) Heart of Darkness Lecture. [WWW document]  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   URL http://www.lawrence.edu    Maes-Jelinek, H. Notes on Heart of Darkness    Moon, B. (1992). Literary Terms A practical Glossary. Perth: Chalkface Press P/L    Analysis of Major Characters. [WWW document]  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   URL http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/heart/characteranalysis.htm      

Cellular Phones: A Reliable Source In Society Today Essay

In today’s society it is hard to find someone who does not own a cell phone. It is almost like cell phones appeared over night, since we used to see nothing but rich guys in the 80’s carrying around large, chunky mobile phones to now where we have a variety assortment of smaller cell phones that we can choose from. Now a days, cell phones are used in just about every aspect of life, from work, to school, to emergencies, to browsing the web to get information, to playing games or just plain talking with a loved one, we use our cell phones. Some families have even gone strictly cellular and do not own a separate home phone. This is how popular cellular phones have become. Can one say that it is a form of technology that has enhanced our society? One would say â€Å"yes† it is. Just a few years ago, pagers were the thing to have, now with the advance technology of cellular phones, who needs pagers anymore? It has come to the point that now you will see a 10 year old with a cellular phone. Many parents feel better if their child has a phone to where they can reach them at any given point. However, is this really necessary? I mean, when I was 10, if I was not at home with my mom, I was either in school or over a relative’s house, nonetheless, my mother knew where I was at all times. This is just one example of how cell phones have become heavily relied upon in society. Let us explore how useful cellular phones have become and how we as a society rely upon their use each and every day. To begin let us go back into history of how cellular phones came about. According to Jamie Brown at Yahoo! Yahoo! Voices. Contributor Network, Cell Phone History: Technology and Innovation Over the Years. (January 12, 2009). Retrieved from: http://voices. yahoo. com/cell-phone-history-technology-innovation-over-2414208. html. â€Å"The very first cell phone was developed in April 1973 by Dr. Martin Cooper, a manager at Motorola, and a group of fellow inventors. Cooper called his competitor on the cell phone he had just invented. The technology was called AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone Service). It took ten more years for the first analog cell phone to be developed for commercial use by a company called Ameritech. As I have done my research on the use of cellular phones today, I have come to find that much of society have many uses for the cellular phones. Many own a Smartphone and some may be like me and still own a basic phone. Nonetheless, just to own a cellular phone is a plus, and you are looked at strange if you say you do not own one. As I was reading an article on CNN Tech, by Amy Gahran, October 22, 2010, she referred to her â€Å"aha! † moment when she realized how the significant cellular phones were back in spring of 2009. She told the story of when she was on the bus sitting across from an elderly gentlemen who looked homeless. When all of a sudden a cell phone rang, and the man reached into his pocket and pulled out a flip phone and commenced to having a conversation, confirming an appointment to get off the streets. Now just looking at this, I realized that there are many people out there who may not have a place live, actually living in shelters, but they will have a cell phone. When I asked my husband Michael how prevalent are cell phones in shelters (because he used to be in one through the Salvation Army back in 2010), he stated: â€Å"yes there were plenty of people in there who had cell phones, they had to have a way for people to get in contact with them. And you have to realize, there are so many government programs that issue out free cell phones, anyone could have one. † Now based on that fact alone, I realized that our society, really could not function properly without the use of cellular devices. Since their inception, technology has evolved to where we basically need the use of cellular devices, just to get by in our day to day lives. Thinking back when I was younger and wished I had a way to get in contact with my mom, about when to pick me up from school. Only way I could reach out to her was to call the house, not realizing if she was not at home she would not receive my message. Oh boy, how I wished we had the luxury of small mobile cellular devices back then, instead, we had the big bag mobile devices, that only those who could afford it carried them around. After further research, there are many who believe that cellular phones have been a very much needed and great asset to our society. According to Foram Mehta, on an article done on Buzzle website titled: How Cell Phones are Changing Our Society. They do break it down on how society has been using cellular devices and for what reasons.

Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” Essay

Unjust Justice Systems;A comparison of the West Memphis Three and The CrucibleImagine sitting at home one night and having police officers show up at your hose and arrest you for a crime you had no idea was committed. Three teenage boys in West Memphis, Arkansas and over thirty-nine characters in The Crucible went through exactly that. The West memphis three is the trial of three teenage boys who were charged with killing two eight-year-old oys in the woods and leading a hate group. The trial portrayed in The Crucible are based on the real life Salem Witch Trials, the accused in the play were charged with witchcraft. Evidence in both cases was insufficient and mostly eye witnessed. Both crimes committed were abstract and referred to as the devils work. All accused in both trials were doomed from the beginning. In The Crucible to save oneself if accused one must confess to something they didnt do and then name people that did do it, basically if they wanted to live thy had to lie and accuse other innocent people. The West Memphis three had to go through the court system with corrupt people lying and no way to prove themselves innocent. Arthur Miller portrayed the evidence in The Crucible as only eye witness accounts and petty reasoning, such as the ability to fake a faint. The characters that danced in the woods were considered reliable and what they said was all that was needed to convict the people of witchcraft. In the real life accounts of the West Memphis three, the evidence used against the teenagers were black Metallica shirts, the confession that didnt match the incident, and peers that told the police that they overheard one of the teenagers say they were going to kill two boys. The peers story later changed when under oath but the judge reffered back to the first story to help convict the accused. In both cases the accusers could not counter argue the evidence because it was their word against the witnesses. Before the West Memphis trials the police had a confession from all three teenage boys. t was used against them in court. The reason for the confession, some argue, is a condition called Satanic Panic. Someone who has Satanic Panic creates false memories that place themselves at the scene of the crime they were accused of. The crime normally is devil related, for example rape, magic, and voodoo are all known as the work of the devil.  People who are diagnosed with Satanic Panic are normally also diagnosed with Multiple Personality Disorder. The witches in The Crucible were charged with harming others with magic. They had to confess themselves to keep themselves from being hanged. This is an example of how Satanic Panic is described. When Mary Warren says, Its not a trick! I-I used to faint because I-I thought I saw spirits. (miller 47) she is describing Hysteria, or Satanic Panic; she created the spirits because the other girls saw the. In The Crucible Hale, an expert in the area of witchcraft, played a large role in the courtroom. In the trial of the teenagers there was a doctor who was an expert in the area of stanic panic. Being experts in such areas are hard to prove, the doctor of satanic panic did not have a degree or any proof that he studied such a subject. He merely stated that he has worked with patients claiming to do things because the devil told them to. In the play Hale simply forces people to confess to save their lives, which is not the work of a doctor but more of a persuader. Both men later on reviewed the case, the accused, and the evidence and wanted to save the innocent people. Hale describes his change of opinion by saying, Let you not mistake your duty as I mistook my own. (miller 58) THey also were unsuccessful. Both crimes are abstract, meaning that there is no evidence attainable for a just conviction, but both crimes have serious consequences. In The Crucible the people who denied being a witch were sentenced to be hanged. Two of the teenagers were sentenced to be hanged. Two of the teenagers were sentenced to life in prison and the last was sentenced to death by injection. Is that fair? The teenagers still had a full life in front of them but because they were used as scapegoats, it was cut short. Can you call a justice system that convicts people for such crimes just?The 1994 case of the West Memphis three and the 1953 play The Crucible have similarities. Abstract convictions, false accusations, and unjust executions are all part of both trials. Neither account is something to be proud of, nor should such times be repeated. When you look at such similar occures, which are separated by four decades, you begin to wonder if humans really learn from their mistakes. Jessie Misskelley, Damien Echols, and Jason Baldwin, the West Memphis three, are sitting in jail; they have been there for 5220 days and  awaiting their death. Spreading knowledge of this hideous case and raising support could help get them and appeal and save three innocent people.

Drama †Blood Brothers Response Essay

Blood brothers is a story which was written in 1981 as a school play and included a range of themes which help the audience understand and feel for the story rather than just watching it. The themes in this play include poverty, innocence, love, games, belief and superstition. I feel that the key themes that control the play are chance and society of the time and I feel that most of the story circles around these themes and most events are caused by these themes. To emphasize the themes in the play, we created a three minute version of the play which consisted of still images, narration and stylised movement. We decided to split the play into four sections which were: baby years, childhood, 14 – 17 years and 20+ years. We decided that we would show the giving away of the baby as this allows the rest of the story to flow. If it wasn’t for this specific scene, the story wouldn’t have happened as the giving away of one twin is a significant event in the play. This also allowed us to add emotion to our piece as this is one of the several events which separate people into two opinions. For the second section (which was childhood) we included images of them first meeting, playing games, both of the mothers separating Mickey and Eddie and Mrs Johnstone giving the locket to Eddie. My group and I felt that these were also important events in the play; in fact one of the main themes in the play is games which relates to the robbery and overall shooting of both twins later on. For 14 -17 years, we decided to show both children being suspended from school, the meet up between friends with the devil narration on top which we thought allowed our piece to flow making it easier to understand. At the last stage, 20+, we performed four still images which included an unemployment scene, Linda’s pregnancy, Eddie and Linda being together and finally the shooting with the second half of the images having the mad man narration over the top: ‘There’s a mad man running round and round You know the devil’s got your number You know he’s right beside you He’s screamin’ deep inside you And someone said he’s callin’ your number up today Today Today TODAY!’ This piece of narration was used in our three minute version of the play as we thought that it summed up a lot of the happenings in this age group and is a constant theme throughout the play. I found that the best way to tell this story within the three minutes was to use different techniques which allowed expressing and stressing of several moments in a play making it more effective. In our three minute version, this included levels, space and marking the moment. One example of these entire three put together was when both boys got expelled. We had the class sitting down at the back while the teacher was standing up straight looking down on one pupil who was higher than the class but lower than the teacher. This made use of levels, space and also marked the moment by focusing on the locket. We decided to make the giving away of the baby the most significant point in the play. This is because the whole of the story centres on this point, and if it wasn’t for this event, none of the other events would have happened. To mark this moment, we used narration which was originally placed over the point where Mrs Johnstone was only considering giving the baby to Mrs Lyons. ‘How quickly and idea, planted, can Take root and grow into a plan. The thought conceived in this very room Grew as surely as a seed, in a mother’s womb’ This piece of narration allowed us to realise how the event they are seeing came into being. We found that forum theatre was a very useful technique to bring Mickey’s monologue to life. Forum theatre was used to change the way we said lines and how to put expression, feeling and life to the lines which in turn make the monologue a lot more vibrant and interesting. The way we performed forum theatre was to have someone acting out a verse of the poem. We then got the audience to comment and suggest improvements. We then acted the verse out again and repeated the process until we were happy with it. Below is the verse we performed. ‘Y’ know our Sammy, He draws nudey women, Without arms, or legs or even heads In the baths, when he goes swimmin’. But I’m not allowed to go to the baths, Me Mam says I have to wait, ‘Cos I might get drowned, ‘cos I’m only seven, But I’m not, I’m nearly eight.’ We started off with the beginning of the verse being said in a very secretive way although it was put in the category of secret in a child which meant that it had to be told; something I had felt many a time when I was a young child which also meant my body was slightly crouched and slightly tense. I used the same experience to ‘goggle’ at what Sammy was able to do when he went swimming. Then disappointment kicks in when I hit ‘But I’m not allowed†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ as my voice goes slower and my body slumps and when the mother comes on I re-enact a rather rude hand motion usually used when someone is too talkative while the mother reads her quote. The last line is said in a way of self-pity making the character feel sorry for himself which I have felt many times when I was a young child and feeling as if my parents were deriving me of all of the world’s pleasures. In this monologue I learnt that Mickey was a character who always wanted more and wanted something someone else had that he hadn’t which is an apparent characteristic of Mickey throughout the play. It also helped me realise that it was more than just a greedy feeling as the feeling was a lot deeper and it was if the world had forgotten about him but not the others who lived in the world around him. As I said before, forum theatre had helped me find these characteristics as it helped shape what had been written. It was as if there were a lot of muddled thoughts and both me and the audience were helping to piece it together properly so we could both get an idea on how the character was really like and how the character really felt. For individual spontaneous improvisation, I acted as Mrs Johnstone where I was looking at both babies and playing with them as if it were my last time with both of them. Of course, at the time my character would have not known which baby would have been taken and because of this, I acted in a way as if it were the last time for Mrs Johnstone to see both of them. My thought track for this piece was: ‘I can’t believe this is happening’ and it would have been hard to come to terms with something which could potentially change somebody’s life, especially when it is your own son. This decision was both challenged and supported by a technique called a conscience corridor which we used to find the pros and cons of giving the baby away which was then fired to somebody stepping into the shoes of Mrs Johnstone. Feeling the confused and mixed feelings, it gave us a chance to make our own decision as if we were that character. Some pros included having money, less stress, a better life for your son, less work. Some cons included the guilt of your child being bought, splitting up a natural bond given to both children, more stress as you worry and having to cover it up from the outside world. The conscience corridor was put into action by splitting the class in half and putting them up as two sides to create a human ‘corridor’. We then got a member of our class to walk up while each person in the ‘wall’ said the pros and cons. When the person in the middle finishes walking up through the corridor, he/she tells us his/her decision. In this situation, I wrote a diary entry as Mrs Johnstone. I typed my diary entry up below ‘I can’t believe it is happening. So close to the time where one of my beloved babies would be given away to my employer. I am sure that I am doing the right thing – I can’t afford to give them both a good life and Mrs Lyons does want a baby so badly. Even so, I feel I am breaking a natural bond given to them both which makes me unsure on whether I should do it. I am in a situation which I would never wish on any mother.’ Overall, I found that explorative strategies helped us understand Blood Brothers as it allowed us to see what usually are hidden thoughts and feelings of characters. It also allows us to get into character and realise how events and other actions are performed by the character.

Historiographic Metafiction Essay

The frontiers of a book are never clear-cut: beyond the title, the first lines, and the last full-stop, beyond its internal configuration and its autonomous form, it is caught up in a system of references to other books, other texts, other sentences: it is a node within a network. -Foucault What we tend to call postmodernism in literature today is usually characterized by intense self-reflexivity and overtly parodic intertextuality. In fiction this means that it is usually metafiction that is equated with the postmodern. Given the scarcity of precise definitions of this problematic period designation, such an equation is often accepted without question. What I would like to argue is that, in the interests of precision and consistency, we must add something else to this definition: an equally self-conscious dimension of history. My model here is postmodern architecture, that resolutely parodic recalling of the history of architectural forms and functions. The theme of the 1980 Venice Biennale, which introduced postmodernism to the architectural world, was â€Å"The Presence of the Past. † The term postmodernism, when used in fiction, should, by analogy, best be reserved to describe fiction that is at once metafictional and historical in its echoes of the texts and contexts of the past. In order to distinguish this paradoxical beast from traditional historical fiction, I would like to label it â€Å"historiographic metafiction. † The category of novel I am thinking of includes One Hundred Years of Solitude, Ragtime, The French Lieutenant’s Woman, and The Name of the Rose. All of these are popular and familiar novels whose metafictional self-reflexivity (and intertextuality) renders their implicit claims to historical veracity somewhat problematic, to say the least. 3 LINDA HUTCHEON In the wake of recent assaults by literary and philosophical theory on modernist formalist closure, postmodern American fiction, in particular, has sought to open itself up to history, to what Edward Said (The World) calls the â€Å"world. † But it seems to have found that it can no longer do so in any innocent way: the certainty of direct reference of the historical novel or even the nonfictional novel is gone. So is the certainty of self-reference implied in the Borgesian claim that both literature and the world are equally fictive realities. The postmodern relationship between fiction and history is an even more complex one of interaction and mutual implication. Historiographic metafiction works to situate itself within historical discourse without surrendering its autonomy as fiction. And it is a kind of seriously ironic parody that effects both aims: the intertexts of history and fiction take on parallel (though not equal) status in the parodic reworking of the textual past of both the â€Å"world† and literature. The textual incorporation of these intertextual past(s) as a constitutive structural element of postmodernist fiction functions as a formal marking of historicity-both literary and â€Å"worldly. † At first glance it would appear that it is only its constant ironic signaling of difference at the very heart of similarity that distinguishes postmodern parody from medieval and Renaissance imitation (see Greene 17). For Dante, as for E. L. Doctorow, the texts of literature and those of history are equally fair game. Nevertheless, a distinction should be made: â€Å"Traditionally, stories were stolen, as Chaucer stole his; or they were felt to be the common property of a culture or community †¦ These notable happenings, imagined or real, lay outside language the way history itself is supposed to, in a condition of pure occurrence† (Gass 147). Today, there is a return to the idea of a common discursive â€Å"property† in the embedding of both literary and historical texts in fiction, but it is a return made problematic by overtly metafictional assertions of both history and literature as human constructs, indeed, as human illusions-necessary, but none the less illusory for all that. The intertextual parody of historiographic metafiction enacts, in a way, the views of certain contemporary historiographers (see Canary and Kozicki): it offers a sense of the presence of the past, but this is a past that can only be known from its texts, its traces-be they literary or historical. Clearly, then, what I want to call postmodernism is a paradoxical cultural phenomenon, and it is also one that operates across many traditional disciplines. In contemporary theoretical discourse, for instance, we find puzzling contradictions: those masterful denials of mastery, totalizing negations of totalization, continuous attest4 HISTORIOGRAPHIC METAFICTION ings of discontinuity. In the postmodern novel the conventions of both fiction and historiography are simultaneously used and abused, installed and subverted, asserted and denied. And the double (literary/historical) nature of this intertextual parody is one of the major means by which this paradoxical (and defining) nature of postmodernism is textually inscribed. Perhaps one of the reasons why there has been such heated debate on the definition of postmodernism recently is that the implications of the doubleness of this parodic process have not been fully examined. Novels like The Book of Daniel or The Public Burning-whatever their complex intertextual layering-can certainly not be said to eschew history, any more than they can be said to ignore either their moorings in social reality (see Graff 209) or a clear political intent (see Eagleton 61). Historiographic metafiction manages to satisfy such a desire for â€Å"worldly† grounding while at the same time querying the very basis of the authority of that grounding. As David Lodge has put it, postmodernism short-circuits the gap between text and world (239-4 0 ) . Discussions of postmodernism seem more prone than most to confusing self-contradictions, again perhaps because of the paradoxical nature of the subject itself. Charles Newman, for instance, in his provocative book The Post-Modern Aura, begins by defining postmodern art as a â€Å"commentary on the aesthetic history of whatever genre it adopts† (44). This would, then, be art which sees history only in aesthetic terms (57). However, when postulating an American version of postmodernism, he abandons this metafictional intertextual definition to call American literature a â€Å"literature without primary influences,† â€Å"a literature which lacks a known parenthood,† suffering from the â€Å"anxiety of non-influence† (87). As we shall see, an examination of the novels of Toni Morrison, E. L. Doctorow, John Barth, Ishmael Reed, Thomas Pynchon, and others casts a reasonable doubt on such pronouncements. On the one hand, Newman wants to argue that  postmodernism at large is resolutely parodic; on the other, he asserts that the American postmodern deliberately puts â€Å"distance between itself and its literary antecedents, an obligatory if occasionally conscience-stricken break with the past† (172). Newman is not alone in his viewing of postmodern parody as a form of ironic rupture with the past (see Thiher 214), but, as in postmodernist architecture, there is always a paradox at the heart of that â€Å"post†: irony does indeed mark the difference from the past, but the intertextual echoing simultaneously works to affirm-textually and hermeneutically-the connection with the past. When that past is the literary period we now seem to label as 5 LINDA HUTCHEON modernism, then what is both instated and then subverted is the notion of the work of art as a closed, self-sufficient, autonomous object deriving its unity from the formal interrelations of its parts. In its characteristic attempt to retain aesthetic autonomy while still returning the text to the â€Å"world,† postmodernism both asserts and then undercuts this formalistic view. But this does not necessitate a return to the world of â€Å"ordinary reality,† as some have argued (Kern 216); the â€Å"world† in which the text situates itself is the â€Å"world† of discourse, the â€Å"world† of texts and intertexts. This â€Å"world† has direct links to the world of empirical reality, but it is not itself that empirical reality. It is a contemporary critical truism that realism is really a set of conventions, that the representation of the real is not the same as the real itself. What historiographic metafiction challenges is both any naive realist concept of representation and any equally naive textualist or formalist assertions of the total separation of art from the world. The postmodern is selfconsciously art â€Å"within the archive† (Foucault 92), and that archive is both historical and literary. In the light of the work of writers such as Carlos Fuentes, Salman Rushdie, D. M. Thomas,John Fowles, Umberto Eco, as well as Robert Coover, E. L. Doctorow, John Barth, Joseph Heller, Ishmael Reed, and other American novelists, it is hard to see why critics such as Allen Thiher, for instance, â€Å"can think of no such intertextual foundations today† as those of Dante in Virgil (189)’ Are we really in the midst of a crisis of faith in the â€Å"possibility of historical culture† (189)? Have we ever not been in such a crisis? To parody is not to destroy the past; in fact, to parody is both to enshrine the past and to question it. And this is the postmodern paradox. The theoretical exploration of the â€Å"vast dialogue† (Calinescu, 169) between and among literatures and histories that configure postmodernism has, in part, been made possible by Julia Kristeva’s early reworking of the Bakhtinian notions of polyphony, dialogism, and heteroglossia-the multiple voicings of a text. Out of these ideas she developed a more strictly formalist theory of the irreducible plurality of texts within and behind any given text, thereby deflecting the critical focus away from the notion of the subject (here, the author) to the idea of textual productivity. Kristeva and her colleagues at Tel Quel in the late sixties and early seventies mounted a collective attack on the founding subject (alias: the â€Å"romantic† cliche of the author) as the original and originating source of fixed and fetishized meaning in the text. And, of course, this also put into question the entire notion of the â€Å"text† as an autonomous entity, with immanent meaning. 6 HISTORIOGRAPHIC METAFICTION In America a similar formalist impulse had provoked a similar attack much earlier in the form of the New Critical rejection of the â€Å"intentional fallacy† (Wimsatt). Nevertheless, it would seem that even though we can no longer talk comfortably of authors (and sources and influences), we still need a critical language in which to discuss those ironic allusions, those re-contextualized quotations, those double-edged parodies both of genre and of specific works that proliferate in modernist and postmodernist texts. This, of course, is where the concept of intertextuality has proved so useful. As later defined by Roland Barthes (Image 160) and Michael Riffaterre (142-43), intertextuality replaces the challenged authortext relationship with one between reader and text, one that situates the locus of textual meaning within the history of discourse itself. A literary work can actually no longer be considered original; if it were, it could have no meaning for its reader. It is only as part of prior discourses that any text derives meaning and significance. Not surprisingly, this theoretical  redefining of aesthetic value has coincided with a change in the kind of art being produced. Postmodernly parodic composer George Rochberg, in the liner notes to the Nonesuch recording of his String Quartet no. 3 articulates this change in these terms: â€Å"I have had to abandon the notion of ‘originality,’ in which the personal style of the artist and his ego are the supreme values; the pursuit of the one-idea, uni-dimensional work and gesture which seems to have dominated the esthetics of art in the aoth century; and the received idea that it is necessary to divorce oneself from the past. â€Å"In the visual arts too, the works of Shusaku Arakawa, Larry Rivers, Tom Wesselman, and others have brought about, through parodic intertextuality (both aesthetic and historical), a real skewing of any â€Å"romantic† notions of subjectivity and creativity. As in historiographic metafiction, these other art forms parodically cite the intertexts of both the â€Å"world† and art and, in so doing, contest the boundaries that many would unquestioningly use to separate the two. In its most extreme formulation, the result of such contesting would be a â€Å"break with every given context, engendering an infinity of new contexts in a manner which is absolutely illimitable† (Derrida 185). While postmodernism, as I am defining it here, is perhaps somewhat less promiscuously extensive, the notion of parody as opening the text up, rather than closing it down, is an important one: among the many things that postmodern intertextuality challenges are both closure and single, centralized meaning. Its willed and willful provisionality rests largely upon its acceptance of the inevitable textual infiltration of prior discursive 7 LINDA HUTCHEON practices. Typically contradictory, intertextuality in postmodern art both provides and undermines context. In Vincent B. Leitch’s terms, it â€Å"posits both an uncentered historical enclosure and an abysmal decentered foundation for language and textuality; in so doing, it exposes all contextualizations as limited and limiting, arbitrary and confining, self-serving and authoritarian, theological and political. However paradoxically formulated,  intertextuality offers a liberating determinism† (162). It is perhaps clearer now why it has been claimed that to use the term intertextuality in criticism is not just to avail oneself of a useful conceptual tool: it also signals a â€Å"prise de position, un champ de reference† (Angenot 122). But its usefulness as a theoreticalframework that is both hermeneutic and formalist is obvious in dealing with historiographic metafiction that demands of the reader not only the recognition of textualized traces of the literary and historical past but also the awareness of what has been done-through irony-to those traces. The reader is forced to acknowledge not only the inevitable textuality of our knowledge of the past, but also both the value and the limitation of that inescapably discursive form of knowledge, situated as it is â€Å"between presence and absence† (Barilli). halo Calvina’s Marco Polo in Invisible Cities both is and is not the historical Marco Polo. How can we, today, â€Å"know† the Italian explorer? We can only do so by way of texts-including his own (Il Milione) , from which Calvino parodically takes his frame tale, his travel plot, and his characterization (Musarra 141). Roland Barthes once defined the intertext as â€Å"the impossibility of living outside the infinite text† (Pleasure 36), thereby making intertextuality the very condition of textuality. Umberto Eco, writing of his novel The Name of the Rose, claims: â€Å"1 discovered what writers have always known (and have told us again and again): books always speak of other books, and every story tells a story that has already been told† (20). The stories that The Name of the Rose retells are both those of literature (by Arthur Conan Doyle, Jorge Luis Borges, James Joyce, Thomas Mann, T.S. Eliot, among others) and those of history (medieval chronicles, religious testimonies). This is the parodically doubled discourse of postmodernist intertextuality. However, this is not just a doubly introverted form of aestheticism: the theoretical implications of this kind of historiographic metafiction coincide with recent historiographic theory about the nature of history writing as narrativization (rather than representation) of the past and about the nature of the archive as the textualized remains of history (see White, â€Å"The Question†). 8 HISTORIOGRAPHIC METAFICTION In other words, yes, postmodernism manifests a certain introversion, a self-conscious turning toward the form of the act of writing itself; but it is also much more than that. It does not go so far as to â€Å"establish an explicit literal relation with that real world beyond itself,† as some have claimed (Kirernidjian 238). Its relationship to the â€Å"worldly† is still on the level of discourse, but to claim that is to claim quite a lot. After all, we can only â€Å"know† (as opposed to â€Å"experience†) the world through our narratives (past and present) of it, or so postmodernism argues. The present, as well as the past, is always already irremediably textualized for us (Belsey 46), and the overt intertextuality of historiographic metafiction serves as one of the textual signals of this postmodern realization. Readers of a novel like Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five do not have to proceed very far before picking up these signals. The author is identified on the title page as â€Å"a fourth-generation German-American now living in easy circumstances on Cape Cod (and smoking too much), who, as an American infantry scout hors de combat, as a prisoner of war, witnessed the fire-bombing of Dresden, Germany, ‘The Florence of the Elbe,’ a long time ago, and survived to tell the tale. This is a novel somewhat in the telegraphic schizophrenic manner of tales of the planet Tralfamadore, where the flying saucers come from. Peace. † The character, Kurt Vonnegut, appears in the novel, trying to erase his memories of the war and of Dresden, the destruction of which he saw from â€Å"Slaughterhouse-Five,† where he worked as a POW. The novel itself opens with: â€Å"All this happened, more or less. The war parts, anyway, are pretty much true† (7). Counterpointed to this historical context, however, is the (metafictionally marked) Billy Pilgrim, the optometrist who helps correct defective vision-including his own, though it takes the planet Tralfamadore to give him his new perspective. Billy’s fantasy life acts as an allegory of the author’s own displacements and postponements (i. e. , his other novels) that prevented him from writing about Dresden before this, and it is the intratexts of the novel that signal this allegory: Tralfamadore itself is from Vonnegut’s The Sirens of Titan, Billy’s home in Illium is from Player Piano, characters appear from Mother Night and God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. The intertexts, however, function in similar ways, and their provenience is again double: there are actual historical intertexts (documentaries on Dresden, etc.), mixed with those of historical fiction (Stephen Crane, Celine). But there are also structurally and thematically connected allusions: to Hermann Hesse’s Journey to the East and to various works of science fiction. Popular 9 LINDA HUTCHEON and high-art intertexts mingle: Valley of the Dolls meets the poems of William Blake and Theodore Roethke. All are fair game and all get re-contextualized in order to challenge the imperialistic (cultural and political) mentalities that bring about the Dresdens of history. Thomas Pynchon’s V. uses double intertexts in a similarly â€Å"loaded† fashion to formally enact the author’s related theme of the entropic destructiveness of humanity. Stencil’s dossier, its fragments of the texts of history, is an amalgam of literary intertexts, as if to remind us that â€Å"there is no one writable ‘truth’ about history and experience, only a series of versions: it always comes to us ‘stencillized'† (Tanner 172). And it is always multiple, like V’s identity. Patricia Waugh notes that metafiction such as Slaughterhouse-Five or The Public Burning â€Å"suggests not only that writing history is a fictional act, ranging events conceptually through language to form a world-model, but that history itself is invested, like fiction, with interrelating plots which appear to interact independently of human design† (48-49). Historiographic metafiction is particularly doubled, like this, in its inscribing of both historical and literary intertexts. Its specific and general recollections of the forms and contents of history writing work to familiarize the unfamiliar through (very familiar) narrative structures (as Hayden White has argued [â€Å"The Historical Text,† 49-50]), but its metafictional selfreflexivity works to render problematic any such familiarization. And the reason for the sameness is that both real and imagined worlds come to us through their accounts of them, that is, through their traces, their texts. The ontological line between historical past and literature is not effaced (see Thiher 190), but underlined. The past really did exist, but we can only â€Å"know† that past today through its texts, and therein lies its connection to the literary. If the discipline of history has lost its privileged status as the purveyor of truth, then so much the better, according to this kind of modern historiographic theory: the loss of the illusion of transparency in historical writing is a step toward intellectual self-awareness that is matched by metafiction’s challenges to the presumed transparency of the language of realist texts. When its critics attack postmodernism for being what they see as ahistorical (as do Eagleton, Jameson, and Newman), what is being referred to as â€Å"postrnodern† suddenly becomes unclear, for surely historiographic metafiction, like postmodernist architecture and painting, is overtly and resolutely historical-though, admittedly, in an ironic and problematic way that acknowledges that history is not the transparent record of any sure â€Å"truth. † Instead, such fiction 10. HISTORIOGRAPHIC METAFICTION corroborates the views of philosophers of history such as Dominick LaCapra who argue that â€Å"the past arrives in the form of texts and textualized remainders-memories, reports, published writings, archives, monuments, and so forth† (128) and that these texts interact with one another in complex ways. This does not in any way deny the value of history-writing; it merely redefines the conditions of value in somewhat less imperialistic terms. Lately, the tradition of narrative history with its concern â€Å"for the short time span, for the individual and the event† (Braudel 27), has been called into question by the Annales School in France. But this particular model of narrative history was, of course, also that of the realist novel. Historiographic metafiction, therefore, represents a challenging of the (related) conventional forms of fiction and history through its acknowledgment of their inescapable textuality. As Barthes once remarked, Bouvard and Pecuchet become the ideal precursors of the postmodernist writer who â€Å"can only imitate a gesture that is always anterior, never original. His only power is to mix writings, to counter the ones with the others, in such a way as never to rest on any of them† (Irnage 146). The formal linking of history and fiction through the common denominators of intertextuality and narrativity is usually offered not as a reduction, as a shrinking of the  scope and value of fiction, but rather as an expansion of these. Or, if it is seen as a limitation-restricted to the always already narrated-this tends to be made into the primary value, as it is in Lyotard’s â€Å"pagan vision,† wherein no one ever manages to be the first to narrate anything, to be the origin of even her or his own narrative (78). Lyotard deliberately sets up this â€Å"limitation† as the opposite of what he calls the capitalist position of the writer as original creator, proprietor, and entrepreneur of her or his story. Much postmodern writing shares this implied ideological critique of the assumptions underlying â€Å"romantic† concepts of author and text, and it is parodic intertextuality that is the major vehicle of that critique. Perhaps because parody itself has potentially contradictory ideological implications (as â€Å"authorized transgression,† it can be seen as both conservative and revolutionary [Hutcheon 69-83]), it is a perfect mode of criticism for postmodernism, itself paradoxical in its conservative installing and then radical contesting of conventions. Historiographic metafictions, like Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gunter Grass’s The Tin Drurn, or Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children (which uses both of the former as intertexts), employ parody not only to restore history and memory in the face of the distortions of the â€Å"history of forgetting† (Thiher 11 LINDA HUTCHEON 202), but also, at the same time, to put into question the authority of any act of writing by locating the discourses of both history and fiction within an ever-expanding intertextual network that mocks any notion of either single origin or simple causality. When linked with satire, as in the work of Vonnegut, V. Vampilov, Christa Wolf, or Coover, parody can certainly take on more precisely ideological dimensions. Here, too, however, there is no direct intervention in the world: this is writing working through other writing, other textualizations of experience (Said Beginnings 237). In many cases intertextuality may well be too limited a term to describe this process; interdiscursivity would perhaps be a more accurate term for the collective modes of discourse from which the postmodern parodically draws: literature, visual arts, history, biography, theory, philosophy,  psychoanalysis, sociology, and the list could go on. One of the effects of this discursive pluralizing is that the (perhaps illusory but once firm and single) center of both historical and fictive narrative is dispersed. Margins and edges gain new value. The â€Å"ex-centric†-as both off-center and de-centeredgets attention. That which is â€Å"different† is valorized in opposition both to elitist, alienated â€Å"otherness† and also to the uniformizing impulse of mass culture. And in American postmodernism, the â€Å"different† comes to be defined in particularizing terms such as those of nationality, ethnicity, gender, race, and sexual orientation. Intertextual parody of canonical classics is one mode of reappropriating and reformulating-with significant changes-the dominant white, male, middle-class, European culture. It does not reject it, for it cannot. It signals its dependence by its use of the canon, but asserts its rebellion through ironic abuse of it. As Edward Said has been arguing recently (â€Å"Culture†), there is a relationship of mutual interdependence between the histories of the dominators and the dominated. American fiction since the sixties has been, as described by Malcolm Bradbury (186), particularly obsessed with its own pastliterary, social, and historical. Perhaps this preoccupation is (or was) tied in part to a need to fmd a particularly American voice within a culturally dominant Eurocentric tradition (D’haen 216). The United States (like the rest of North and South America) is a land of immigration. In E. L. Doctorow’s words, â€Å"We derive enormously, of course, from Europe, and that’s part of what Ragtime is about: the means by which we began literally, physically to lift European art and architecture and bring it over here† (in Trenner 58). This is also part of what American historiographic metafiction in general is â€Å"about. † Critics have discussed at length the parodic 12 HISTORIOGRAPHIC METAFICTION intertexts of the work of Thomas Pynchon, including Conrad’s Heart ofDarkness (McHale 88) and Proust’s first-person confessional form (Patteson 37-38) in V. In particular, The Crying of Lot 49 has been seen as directly linking the literary parody ofJacobean drama with the selectivity and subjectivity of what we deem historical â€Å"fact† (Bennett). Here the postmodern parody operates in much the same way as it did in the literature of the seventeenth century, and in both Pynchon’s novel and the plays he parodies (John Ford’s ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore, John Webster’s The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi, and Cyril Tourneur’s The Revenger’s Tragedy, among others), the intertextual â€Å"received discourse† is firmly embedded in a social commentary about the loss of relevance of traditional values in contemporary life (Bennett). Just as powerful and even more outrageous, perhaps, is the parody of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol in Ishmael Reed’s The Terrible Twos, where political satire and parody meet to attack white Euro-centered ideologies of domination. Its structure of â€Å"A Past Christmas† and â€Å"A Future Christmas† prepares us for its initial Dickensian invocations-first through metaphor (â€Å"Money is as tight as Scrooge† [4]) and then directly: â€Å"Ebenezer Scrooge towers above the Washington skyline, rubbing his hands and greedily peering over his spectacles† (4). Scrooge is not a character, but a guiding spirit of 1980 America, one that attends the inauguration of the president that year. The novel proceeds to update Dickens’ tale. However, the rich are still cozy and comfortable (â€Å"Regardless of how high inflation remains, the wealthy will have any kind of Christmas they desire, a spokesman for Neiman-Marcus announces† [5]); the poor are not. This is the 1980 replay of â€Å"Scrooge’s winter, ‘as mean as ajunkyard dog† (32). The â€Å"Future Christmas† takes place after monopoly capitalism has literally captured Christmas following a court decision which has granted exclusive rights to Santa Claus to one person and one company. One strand of the complex plot continues the Dickensian intertext: the American president-a vacuous, alcoholic, ex-(male) model-is reformed by a visit from St. Nicholas, who takes him on a trip through hell, playing Virgil to his Dante. There he meets past presidents and other politicians, whose punishments (as in the Inferno) conform to their crimes. Made a new man from this experience, the president spends Christmas Day with his black butler, John, and John’S crippled grandson. Though unnamed, this Tiny Tim ironically outsentimentalizes Dickens’: he has a leg amputated; he is black; his parents died in a car accident. In an attempt to save the nation, the president goes on televi13 LINDA HUTCHEON sian to announce: â€Å"The problems of American society will not go away †¦ by invoking Scroogelike attitudes against the poor or saying humbug to the old and to the underprivileged† (158). But the final echoes of the Dickens intertext are ultimately ironic: the president is declared unfit to serve (because of his televised message) and is hospitalized by the business interests which really run the government. None of Dickens’ optimism remains in this bleak satiric vision of the future. Similarly, in Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down, Reed parodically inverts Dostoevsky’s â€Å"Grand Inquisitor† in order to subvert the authority of social, moral, and literary order. No work of the Western humanist tradition seems safe from postmodern intertextual citation and contestation today: in Heller’s God Knows even the sacred texts of the Bible are subject to both validation and demystification. It is significant that the intertexts ofJohn Barth’s LETTERS include not only the British eighteenth-century epistolary novel, Don Quixote, and other European works by H. G. Wells, Mann, and Joyce, but also texts by Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman, and James Fenimore Cooper. The specifically American past is as much a part of defining â€Å"difference† for contemporary American postmodernism as is the European past. The same parodic mix of authority and transgression, use and abuse characterizes intra-American intertextuality. For instance, Pynchon’s V. and Morrison’s Song of Solomon, in different ways, parody both the structures and theme of the recoverability of history in William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom!. Similarly, Doctorow’s Lives of the Poets (1984) both installs and subverts Philip Roth’s My Life as a Man and Saul Bellow’s Herzog (Levine 80). The parodic references to the earlier, nineteenth-century or classic American literature are perhaps even more complex, however, since there is a long (and related) tradition of the interaction of fiction and history in, for example, Hawthorne’s use of the conventions of romance to connect the historical past and the writing present. And indeed Hawthorne’s fiction is a familiar postmodern intertext: The Blithedale Romance and Barth’s The Floating Opera share the same moral preoccupation with the consequences of writers taking aesthetic distance from life, but it is the difference in their structural forms (Barth’s novel is more self-consciously metafictional [Christensen 12]) that points the reader to the real irony of the conjunction of the ethical issue. The canonical texts of the American tradition are both undermined and yet drawn upon, for parody is the paradoxical postmodern way of coming to terms with the past.