Ignatius meets Nurse Rached

Today in class we discussed the ending of John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces and I learned, much to my surprise, that a significant number of my classmates wished Ignatius had ended up in the mental institution at the end of the book, instead of making a mad escape to New York. All I could think of was how awful this situation would turn out for him when taking into account the very non-conformist nature of his personality and the state of metal hospitals in the 1960s (think less 'rehabilitation center' and more 'pen of crazy people').While Kelly made this point in class before I had the opportunity to, I would like to delve deeper into the subject and state why I believe sending Ignatius to a mental asylum does absolutely nothing beneficial to both parties and could serve as the absolute worst idea someone could have in regards to getting Ignatius more socially acceptable. I envisioned Ignatius' stay at the mental ward to draw many similarities to McMurphy's in the novel and film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest; he would rebel against the authoritarian staff and create a whole slew of problems for himself. In Cuckoo's nest, the protagonist also does not belong in the hospital, as he faked a mental illness to get out of a more cruel jail sentence, and starts to regret his decision as he can not stand the near complete lack of freedom such a psychiatric ward limits. Also note that Ken Kessy (the author) released his novel in 1962, the exact same era Ignatius lives in. In the hospital they keep the patients sedated and offer absolutely no stimulation; Ignatius knows this and does not want them to tamper "with [his] soul and world-view and mind" (384). I predict that if Ignatius had gotten admitted to such an institution he would end up in the same ending as McMurphy: a shell of his former self, completely reduced to something more akin to an animal than a man; only capable of basic tasks. Ignatius' mind, specifically his higher education, causes many of his problems, but without said mind Ignatius gets reduced to absolutely nothing of significance. His nature and superiority complex would cause him to rebel and the next thing he knows his 10 years of college education is lying on an operating table, and Ignatius does not have any tall Native American friends to help him out of his situation.

They Watch Me As I Type

This weekend I got out of bed, drove halfway into town and then stood outside of Starbucks, watching men and woman carry on their Saturday afternoon. I am supposed to count the number of times one of these people says "Hi" to me, all the while I am supposed to decipher their schedules; learn where their they have visited, where they plan to go, and so on. I am supposed to eavesdrop on their conversations, completing my surveillance of the people who made the mistake of walking near me that fateful Saturday morning. I was then instructed to write about other people, realizing that I "live in a 'bubble'". Now, this experience did give me a sense of the bubble we live in. It also gave me the sense that I would be a really good member of some kind of Totalitarian Governments Secret Police, and there comes a film. I came home and instead of immediately writing poetry, I watched "The Lives of Others" a German film revolving around the life of a high up Stasi officer and the Playwright he gets assigned to do surveillance on. The film goes through the waning days of the Berlin Wall and explores the themes of isolation, corruption, and the power of observation on a human mind. The officer ends up growing a soft spot for the playwright as he observes his relations with his wife and circle of friends. Said emotion, however, gets juxtaposed with his very cold and pragmatic witness reports, that state only the facts with a required reporting of any anti-state activities. A massive crisis of faith occurs part of the way through the film, as one of the writer's friends gets blacklisted from working and takes drastic measures to try to reverse his blacklisting so he could work again. I experienced a conflict of motives while completing my task as well; a number of times I wanted to interject my opinion into a conversation, but had to stop myself as I could "not talk to anyone". The Hawthorne Effect states that one changes their behavior when they know they are being observed. Well, why could not one alter their behavior when observing others as well? This seems, to me, one of the many factors that physical action alters when thinking about and writing poetry, and now I see how important actually completing these actions really were for my poetry.

12 Socially Conforming Jurors

If one looks closely at the film 12 Angry Men (the Henry Fonda version, none of the other ones) one sees multiple themes and messages about a whole cornucopia of justice-related topics. From the difference of legal justice and moral justice; the effect of bias; commentary on the death penalty; and many others, one in particular stands out to me: the power of groups. So how does this relate to English Class? Well, in John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces one gets subjected to almost constant group-thinking. For example, Claude blames every negative aspect on his life on a single group, "'communiss"'(265). Claude does this as an easy way for him to not face the negative aspects of the world, it is simply much easier to group problems on to an already demonized group because accepting that some people we know and like cause some of the problems in the world. Mrs. Reilly, though, easily has the worst case of this issue. I have heard this point brought out countless times in class; that she simply conforms to what others say, just agreeing with the last person to speak an opinion, no matter how uninformed, hurtful, or biased it may have been. Ignatius also portrays a slightly different version of this trope; he gets shunned against society, even when people haven't met him, Ignatius is the factor causing the conformity in this case. In 12 Angry Men nearly all of the men get subjected to this kind of social ousting at sometime throughout the film, whether it stem from their opinion on a piece of evidence, the guilt or innocence of the accused, or simply their actions in the deliberation room. Characters form their opinions on what others think, and it comes through as a major part of the message; that one should hold true to their ideas if they collide with the group's opinion. Well, now I think it has come time for me to needlessly plug that I and fellow classmate Elise Manchester are both in the High School's production of 12 Angry Men (titled 12 Angry Jurors for obvious reasons) and you should all come to see it this weekend.

The Isolation of Two Minds

The game we played in class reminded me of a film, in this case the film is Moon, a film written and directed by Duncan Jones (David Bowie's son) and starring Sam Rockwell. The film focuses on the isolation of the human mind; Rockwell is the only physical character present through the entire film (Kevin Spacey does do vocal work for the robot watching over him) and shows his slow mental deterioration over three years on a lunar mining facility. During class today, we were paired with one of our peers at random, and we waited through the rest of the intellectual battles for our turn in the Smart or Smarter ring of honor. Much of today's conflict came internally form the stress of who we would be facing off against as well as whether or not we believed ourselves capable of beating our opponents in a battle of wits. Moon plays out in much the same way. The protagonist, Sam, starts to suspect that the company he works for has hidden something from him and he starts a game of intellectual cat and mouse in order to try to find his perceived truth while still making his way home to his wife and young daughter. Now, a simple game of Smart or Smarter does not hold nearly as much weight as trying to get through space to get back to one's family; the consequences for both do not nearly come close either; if one loses the 'Smarter' title one only loses bonus points, while the consequence for Sam if he fails is certain death. I just find it funny how intense focus on one topic can do funny things to people, whether the effects come as hallucinations or mental deterioration (in Sam's case) or very in depth analysis of a sentence (in the AP English case). From a psychological standpoint the isolation of social creatures, such as humans, creates a unique mindset that can either create some of the most brilliant works a human mind can produce (just look at all the recluse authors like Salinger, Lovecraft, Dickinson, etc.) or completely destroy all traces of logic and sanity. Its a fine line we walk and, while the game today barely touched on it, watching others walk it can be one of the most fascinating things I've seen in a while.

Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket and Ignatius; or, why Myrna is turning her former friend into a spree killer.

In discussion today, Leslie brought up a film, Bridesmaids, and claimed that one of the characters in said film could be related to Ignatius. Well, having a great deal of film expertise, I quickly have racked my mind and have also found a character that relates to Ignatius. In Bridesmaids the Ignatius parallel receives some positive punishment and ends up motivated and gets a happy ending. Now, in juxtaposition, may I introduce to those that have lived under culture-blocking rocks Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket. This film follows a cynical and pragmatic marine through the Vietnam War from Basic Training to the Tet Offensive, exemplifying the horrors and primitive nature of war through his eyes. In bootcamp, the protagonist, Private Joker, befriends a social misfit(this film's Ignatius parallel), Private Pyle, and watches as he slowly goes insane from the stress of training. This training works the same way as in Bridesmaids, and the same way that Myrna has used to motivate Ignatius; they are degrading, punishing, etc. them in order to cause a lifestyle change. This may work in Bridesmaids, but in Full Metal Jacket (note I am going to spoil part of this film, it was released over 20 years ago and is quite popular) Pyle goes on a psychotic rampage, killing both himself and his drill instructor. In my opinion, someone, such as Ignatius, with such a disconnected view of the world, someone who has very little connections to other, someone who Myrna indirectly characterizes as "a sick, reactionary villain" is NOT someone who should be bullied into conforming to more tolerable lifestyles (80). I understand that boot camp training is a much more severe instance of positive punishment than the example in Bridesmaids, but the possibility is still there. On one side, Ignatius could go the route of Bridesmaids and turn his life around, or he could take the darker route of Full Metal Jacket and end up believing blood "makes the grass grow". In my opinion, Myrna's letter to Ignatius and her whole method of trying to get him to relate to the outside world seems, to me, a complete gamble on Ignacius's sanity, and considering that he said he would "'Show this offensive trollop [Myrna]"' seems to imply he is growing into a nice little psychopath (81). Sometimes playing along with someone's behavior, despite how ridiculous it may seem, works better than shoving an ideology down their throats.