Look at the following photos (click on the PDF file below) and decide which one best suits the excerpt you read by Paul Auster. Be prepared to explain why (that is: explain your choice of the photo).
Then look at the following video clip. Pau Auster’s wife Siri Hustvedt, talks about consumerism and propaganda. In what way are they linked? Can you answer some of the questions she is posing? She raises some interesting issues and I would love you to be prepared to discuss them in class. Your answers will certainly pave the way to our analysis of "1984" and "Animal Farm".
I think the picture that best suits the extract of Paul Auster’s “In The Country of Last Things”, is the last one.
I am completely sure that this is an image taken from the film “Escape From New York” (in Italian “1997: Fuga da New York”); in this film, the protagonist Jena Plissken (Kurt Russel) is a war hero, and he must save the USA president.
Now New York is surrounded by huge town walls and it is impossible to step over them.
Inside these walls live strange people; they are ruled by animal instincts.
The world has chanced and people have changed.
Also the fifth image represents the alteration of the everyday life’s rules.
Alex De Large and his droogs are killing a drunk. They are used to these things.
They steal, they smash everything, they kill, they rape, they insult, and doing these things, for them, is a routine!
eugenia
Dear Eugenia,
It seems you are a film expert. Thanks for describing the two films so vividly.
See you in class.
Your teacher of English.
In my opinion the second and the third are the photos that best suite Paul Auster’s dystopian view. The second is particularly emphatic with all the System orders written on signs sticked to the palaces. It reminds of 1984 city where everything is tided and catalogued in order to be controlled easily (people included). It suggest also the absurdity and the sadness of a place where every action a man should do is written on a wall, to be read every single day and to make people conscious of their worthlesseness. This photo is significant related to Paul Auster’s excerpt, as it presentes a place where human being have built something bigger then them, which is going to trap them. Instead, the third picture hit me because it shows how a man (and especially a child) could be astonished in front of a reality he can’t understand and feel part of.
And the same happens to the protagonist of “In The Country of Last Things” when he can’t figure out why should people build a huge wall to protect them from wars when human beings had already invented airplanes.
by Simone
arnoldi martina
I chosed the first one because in my opinion dystopia is “someone”who has the power to controll the other.he can puts in people’s mind his idea,his way of thinking and nobody has the strenght to go against him.liberty of think is cancelled and they turn into listener,like in the photo,and they obey and they see the situation no more.
arnoldi martina
in my opinion propaganda and consumerism are linked.one is the consequence of the other,they create a circle.the circle with the years is bigger.propaganda invites us to go shopping and buy the latest t-shirt,jeans,mobile phone or even the latest car!you are tempted,and you aren’t able to say NO!so starts consumerism,we buy all new things,some months later we all have the new thing.propaganda begins her temptation with another product and it will go on like this.i think we are the supporter of propaganda and of course of consumerism.
I would choose the second picture: in my opinion it represents very well a dystopia, a country were you are not free to be yourself, where it is the government that decides what you must do. First of all you must obey ( I suppose it is the word written on the left), then you have to consume, so that you get a role in the country’s economy, then you have to watch tv, through which the media can manipulate your mind an finally you have to conform, in order to lose your identity and be controlled in an easier way. This are the basis of a modern totalitarism.
p.s.: if the man in the first picture is the Big Brother, I’m very disappointed: in my imagination he’s completely different, that’s why I usually don’t like movies based on novels!
federica zille
mrs huvstedt wonders how can the consumer culture influence people’s lives and minds, in “in the country of last things” her husband writes about a dystopic society, which tries to manipulate people’s minds: the topic is the same, they just use two different instruments, questions and fiction, both meant to make us reflect about our contemporary society. She asks what does it mean to resist to this visual and verbal culture of consumerism: I think the risk is emargination; the showbiz rules. But I also would like to say that today many young people who oppose to the “power” or to the “given culture”, behave just like the others: to disagree and to protest has become the new fashion. Then she says that it is a culture of repetition, and when you repeat something over and over again, you begin to believe it’s true. I’m the same opinion, but from my point of view it is our hypocrisy’s fault: we all should be more responsible, aware that if we weren’t scared by judgements, we could better our society.
federica zille
I chose the first picture, because it makes me think to brainwashing. It reminds me of totalitarian governments. Of many photos I can’t say anything, because I didn’t see any of the films they are taken by.
I think propaganda makes us consumerist, and cosumerism change our lifestyle. We are subject to influence of ads, that tell us what we have to wear, how we have to look like, how we have to behave…what we have to buy. Under this messages we think that if we don’t do what they say, we will be alone. But we are afraid of solitude, so we do what we think the others do. And we buy, and we spend, and we are never satisfied, we never feel ok. This generates stress, that affects our lives. We want to be similar to the others, and we do activities of every kind. So we are busy, and stressed, but we don’t stop behaving in this way, otherwise we feel excluded.
Pietro Perin
I chose the third picture because in my opinion represents better a dystopian society and Auster’s thought. The photo shows us a man who feels small in front of big and high skyscrapers. It’s a metaphor that explains well the sense of no belonging to the society: the little person represents the man who doesn’t want to submit to its (of society) impositions, or rather of its control; the high skyscraper is the System, the Big Brother in “1984”, that governs all the society. We can associate the person who still remember what an airplane is, to the figure at the bottom of the photo and all the other people to skyscraper that are controlled by the highest skyscraper.
Monica Santi
Guarino Ilaria
I think the picture best suits the extract taknen from “In the coutry of last things”is the second one.This image inspires in me a sense of oppression just like when I read for the first time the extract.And I regret to note that this image remind me to the modern society we live in.
We are always bombarding about what should we do, how we should behave, what we we have to choose in order to live better and what we should think in order to reach the standard of our society. The only difference between our reality and the reality told in the extract is that our system tells us clearly how to behave while in the text there is no categorical taxation.
I think that there is no better image that could explain the control that power has on the minds.
Guarino Ilaria
to what concerne our reality i think tha consumerism is the main factor for which we are increasingly turning into a dystopic society.The more you get the more you want.The more you have the more you became.
Trade dominates us and everything revolves around it.Propaganda and consumerism are closely related.Without advertising and without information almost of the product would not be sold.
And because of this we are influenced to buy unnecessary goods beliving that they are essential.
The pictures which are nearest to “The country of last things” are the first and the third because they both represent a totalitarian society in which man are too little to opposed them if they are not followed by other.If people are not strong enough to think by themselves they can not they are not free also in a society totally free society.When the power of buying of the mass started to be noticed by Ford he understood that propaganda was born to feed the motor of consumerism.Propaganda is also the motor of dystopyis which can not exist without convincing people accurately.The high use of propaganda it’s similar to brainwashing.
The fourth picture suits better than other, in my opinion, the excerpt I read because the thing that hit me was the presence of soldiers that control the workers at the wall and the idea of violence that grown up in my mind;but another image that hit me is the second one becouse of the idea of the wall of “see wall project” with wich I am came up while the reading.
Both consumerism and propaganda find their basis on insistent communication:as A.’s wife said:“ …if you repeat something over and over and over again, people begin to believe it’s true.” To answer to one question she posed(how it become part of us and what does it mean to be able to resist to visual and verbal culture?):I think it become part of us because of a sort of addiction that television created; private channels need ad and any sort of propaganda to survive, and we seem depend on television(with the pronuon “we” I mean our society -especially growing up generations-). Then there are subliminal masseges that make us tv or consumerism adicted, and there are people whose job is based on finding methods to convince us of consumerism…our society is now based(economicaly and culturally spaking) on consumerism.
Erica
The picture I choose is the third, the which one with the girl who looks at the sky and at all the hauses that are all around her. The hauses remembered me the buildings that we create in our minds and that can be destoyed in one second with a phrase,a word…
The dialog between the two characters represents that phrase,that word, which can destroy the society subjected to the government.
Canzi Giulia
Among the photos i prefer the third one where there is a child (it seems) surrounded by lots of skyscrapers. I think that this image is very effective to make us understand how the system works. On the one hand there is the little boy who represent the society that is weak, submitted, controlled and in some way crushed by the system and on the other hand there is the power, here symbolized by the high and imposing buildings. They(skyscrapers) close the horizon to human ambitions so that people are no more free.
Mrs Hustveds talks about our society that is influenced by consumerism. Today the majority of people think that the well-being of the individual is linked to the possibility of buying always new things. They want to be trendy and follow fashion.
The contemporary society is satisfied by the possession of property and it seems that it is guided by this new process. Consumerism has the power to change people’s attitude of mind.
What Mrs Hustveds said can be linked to the extract of Paul Auster’s “In the country of last things” because there is consumerism that can be compared with the government which has the power to controll people and make them following the rules. Both want to impose their principle. On the contrary there are common people influenced by consumerism like the society of “workers” guided by the authority.
Marson Chiara
The second picture reflects better than the others the atmosphere of oppression created by the government,people have to follow the rules of the state and can’t do what they want.or create their future as they wish,in this kind of society there is no space for personality and free will,the authority abuses its power and plans every single thing for the lives of its victims,who have to obey and accept the situation.
Even the colours recall the scenario of the dystopian society,the colour that predominates is grey ,the skyscrapers are grey,the sky is grey and even the light that illuminates the scene is feeble and faint,all these details represents the lack of freedom and sadness caused by the regime.
Montrasio Valentina
I would choose the third picture, I think it depicts perfectly a dystopian society. As “the most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressors is the mind of the oppressed”, I think that a dystopian society is characterized by and atmosphere of psycological oppression more than an atmosphere of physical violence, I mean, obviously there is violence but the most potent violence is that of the mind. So this picture with its huge skyscrapers that somehow crush morallyand then even physically that person, better rappresents what I am saying.
Chiara Pinardi
Consumerism stalks us and enters in our life every day.We can see it in the advertisement on tv, on the billboards(cartelloni pubblicitari), on the internet and also we hear it on the radio.I agree with what Paul Auster’s wife says in the last part of the video:”our culture is a bit like propaganda,if you repeat something over and over again people begin to believe it’s true” but it is not only this,because when somebody hears something over and over again,s/he begins to do these things,for example to buy things seeing on the tv.There is a comparison between “in the country of last things” and Siri Hustvedt’s video.In the book,Paul Auster “shows” how people are submitted to the society,how easily are they manipulated,and in her video,in fact,Siri asks how are people influenced by the consumerism.They face the same subject but in two different ways.
I think that the second picture represents better than the others the book “in the country of last things” because there are those high skyscapers that oblige people to do what the system wants.It’s clear that people aren’t free and all these signs underline the fact that people are under a hard control,as happens in “1984” with Big Brother who spies upon everybody(and maybe the first picture refears to this book).
Santarossa Barbara
I thinck that the picture that best rappresentrs the Paul Oster’s dystopia is the third. I think that this expresses the sense of impotence in front of a social power that is surrounding, overlooking us and that does not give us opportunity to exit. Regarding the video, I think consumerism can be seen as a subtle control of our minds imposed by capitalist society. We are totally dominated by consumerist imposed by society as men who in Dystopia are totally dominated by the ideas of the party. We are in a sort of authoritarian regime where consumerism is the dictator and advertising is the propaganda.
FRAncescoMARSon
corrections to the first row=> I think that the picture that best represents the Paul Ouster’s dystopia is the third.
francesco marson
Both the first and the second images are, in my opinion, linked with the excerpt from Paul Auster. I think the first image has not need of comments: it is the representation of what is a totalitarian government, in which the only thing that counts is the will of the head, the only possible and that has value. Another thing that this picture communicates is the role of men, whose opinions and ideas have no value (men are in the dark while the image of the head is lit), but whose presence is essential to the existence of the totalitarian government. It is canceling the individuality of each person that an authoritarian government may be born. So, the first image makes me think of the totalitarianism of the twentieth century, but the second has an equally strong impact. It represents a reality to which we are subjected every day, a new form of oppression, the Consumerism, which regulates deeply our way of life (so much that sometimes we don’t even realise it, as said in the video clip). It is a new form of oppression; we think to have choice, but in reality we are induced to conformism, to be more easily controllable. It seems that people facing the society is like the child (in the third image) in front of a wall of skyscrapers: there is only one possible direction, without any kind of alternatives.
Federica Cozzarin
in my opinion the first one and second one reflect the Paul Auster’s idea of Dystopia. for me, they reflect a lot the 1984 reality.
the first image seems like the Big Eye that controls everybody. in fact, when we read the book 1984 i imagined that place with that background. the second image reflect the perfect dystopia world: everybody is blind, his acts are influenced by the Governement, is going on for intertia and doesn’t realize that the reality is in front of their eyes covered by bacon. we’re blind in front of badness of reality, of the world, of the human beings.
Laura Sist
In my opinion both the first and the second images are the ones that best suit with Paul Auster’s dystopian view. The first photo is the most appropriate to represent a totalitarian government, peculiar of the dystopian society, a society in which the government completely controls the masses by controlling their thoughts, altering history, events and even changing the meaning of some words to suit the cruel needs of the party and of the “leader” (as happens in Orwell’s “1984”). On the other hand, the second image is the most suitable with the view of a dystopian society based on conformism, consumerism and mental alienation, which goes with the idea of a complete submission to the government. The admass signs and the pervasive clichés adopted by the hypothetical dystopian party in the picture (“conform”, “buy”, “consume”, “obey”, “no thought”, “watch TV”) are addressed to the alienate population with the purpose of transform them in empty containers, ready to be plumped with mirages, blazing lies and every sort of falsity. The leader wants to make the population inoffensive, innocuous, uninformed and happy in its miserable condition of subordination, servitude and conformism, and he obtain this with the manipulated and astute use of the media. Every reference to people, events, facts and places is pure coincidence.
Alessandro Piccin
I chose the first picture because fits the typical dictatorial regime characteristics. The logo of the government appears almost everywhere to remind people that government is everywhere and controls them. Another significative element is the mass of people gathering in front of a big picture of the dictator. The image of his face is as big as the mass itself as to communicate that also if he’s only one, he’s more important than people. The last element is the illumination: the spots where light is more predominant are the face and the logos ti significate the lack of importance of citizen in the dark.
About the video:
The way we are influenced by consumism is add: we are constantly under the subliminal messages taht add gives to us. So we can’t realize taht we are becoming a part of consumism ourself. A way to resist to this? Think with our mind, not to watch the TV, try to find out the trick, the subliminal message in add. This method of add is strictly linked to the dystopia and to the totalitary regime: the repetition of something makes you believe that it’s the truth.
Giulia Raineri