Persepolis Blog Responses #1

4. How Persepolis is organized and structured like it's back in the days of the USSR and etc. It's set as if we were back to where communists were the big thing/news and alot of hatred and killings went on, and certain religious laws were enforced and etc. What Satrapi chose to emphasize in her childhood is how things were handled when it was back in her days. How people were killed just because they were communist or some just for no reason at all. These things had interested her, I believe that's the reason why she focused on these things in her writting. This passage is most definitely past. Satrapi's drawings are quite simple but shows emotions to help readers know what is going on. Her drawings are very neat and simple, and I think it's there to help readers get a picture of what's going on, to picture something in their head while reading the stories. How the drawings add to the narratice of the story is like I said, it shows face expressions and creates a picture in readers minds of what is happening in the story; other than just thinking by youself what's going on really.

5. I believe the writer's voice is sometimes annoying but comical at times. I think it can be annoying because of the little girl Marji. I mean, dang, get a grip girl! If someone wants you to stop asking questions then stop! (geesh!) But then again, it's funny at times because it shows that the story is yet serious but still can be funny at the same time; that can draw a readers attention if they were to get to serious (less tense). Which aspects of Marji's character do I identify with or like the most, or least has got to be when she asks to much dang questions, like when she gets to that point that she's real curious and won't stop till' she hears what she wants to hear. What I like about Marji the most, I've got to say I like it that she's actually into the whole politics thing, and is actually curious, it's just that I don't like it when she's too curious about things. I mean, if a person says for you to stop, yes, stop. My reaction to the little girl didn't affect my reading. I thought it made it quite interesting and an enjoyment to read. Marji made things more of a thrill then more just a story telling. Atleast, that's how I felt.

Final Feed Project / Composition Reflection Essay

My theme for my final feed project is about how consumerism targets your desires for you to buy their products. So on my poster I had many things that interested me and that also showed what they do to appeal to people like me. How I based my project was that I noticed that Feed had made a personal profile for each person and showed what their interests we're and etc. so I just basically created my own personal profile that showed what things run through my head daily but with pictures I had cutted out of many magazines and had placed it in a certain order. On my poster I had things like,...life takes visa, fighting causes for cancer, diabetes and such, and sports, being fit, and etc. Those are the things that really appeal to me. Also, notice that I have no clothes or anything fashion things on there...just a beautiful flower on the bottom right of the poster to show that beauty lies within. To me, I wouldn't die without fashion and it's latest trends. Beauty does, truly lie within a person, it doesn't always have to be expressed through what you wear, and what are the latest trends with the superstars and etc. As I see it, if I were to have a feed, my pop ups would be like pop-ups on computers! My Feed contains that pictures and information it does because of how I feel inside. It's what I think of most of the time. I constantly occupy myself with sports, inspirational books, music, being fit and avoiding my temptations such a cookie and such, I've always thought of becoming one of those people who tries to cure diabetes or cancer for a living and etc. It's just who I am, and what makes up me, and that is why I had cutted those kind of pictures on my poster board. How this defines American culture and identity is that America keeps finding ways to appeal to the public by using slogans and starts by convincing one, then it leads to another, then another, and then as soon as you know it...it'd be like the new thing! How media, consumerism, reliance on technology, and/or popular culture personally affect me is by far alot! To be real honest, if I'm not playing sports, I'd be either listening to my iPod, watching movies, or either on the net downloading my music! Without technology, I don't believe I can really survive, unless I adapt. Because I have grown up with technology already in great use though, I would be really hard to go way back then when technology never existed you know. Comsumerism would affect me but not as much I believe. I say this because I normally just take what I can get. What's there to offer is, I don't normally go out and go out of my way to get things just cause I think It's UNIT hip! (you know what I mean) Surprisingly, I am the youngest daughter out of 11 girls altogether but I am not spoiled at all and I wouldn't like to be either. I'm the more independent types, that likes to do things and get things on her own. Yes, of course, when I do come to those points that I have to rely on others than I do, but nothing BIG. I'm not super positive or anything of what I think the moral is to the story, "Feed" but i do believe that the whole moral about the book is basically all about a story of how the world may come to be in the future,...like, as the days get older, the future starts to become more and more of perfection! Right now, we are creating a society of wanting, desiring, and greiving for/or to be perfect, or having such a life. They find ways of what you eat so you'd life longer, meds you can take that'll fix your so call sickness/problem. They create many many cosmetics that makes women/men believe that'll make you look young, hot, appealing, sexy, and that'll transform your appearance & etc. As soon and you know it, as the days run by...soon enough, I do truly believe the future will be close to making people think that being perfect and living a perfect life is important, or you can say,...the new thing! I believe what M. T. Anderson was trying to get across this book is that how society changes so much day by day and what happens when all those that did use to matter soon enough will be discarded. Just completely forgotten about,...gone. (just like that) The book shows how trying to be a perfectionist can be a disaster in many ways, especially when about 73% goes along with it and are believe that it's there everything. It's all that mattered. At the end of the book, when the feed interlude had said (Everything must go...) I believed it meant that Violet had died because it showed how the size of the font was slowly decreasing and seemed to get further and further away; which showed that the feed was slowly shutting down on her. That's just my opinion, but I do think it can mean many other things such as: maybe it shows that the feed kept and kept slowly dying all other, because of all the malfunctions that people with the feed had. ...A new resolution! Violet, was the first victim. She had began the new resolution!

"Feed" Visual Essay

My theme is how to much technology isn't always a good thing. This robot is a hat that does whatever you command,...but really it has a mind of it's on. This robot hat is from the movie, "Meet the Robinsons". This movie is about a boy who grew up as an orphan and in the future became a great inventor but happened to invent a robot hat on the way that in the future would begin taking over the world. How the robot hat would relate to the book "Feed" is how the "feed" takes over 73% of the population and basically does anything you would command or think about to do. How that would relate to the robot hat from "Meet the Robinsons" is that is also does whatever you command and also can control others to do anything you'd like. Both "feed" and the "robot hat" controls others, without them even knowing!



My theme for this photo would be the way we grow up will forever stay with us. Why do I say this? I say this because, I am hmong. My ancestors may have came from Laos or Thai but I was born a U.S. citizen. I've lived in the U.S. all my life and still do now. But, because I was brought up the way I did I would have never imagined even growing up without electricity, healthy nutritious food, medical treatment, and come to even imagine what others have gone through without all these things...and how the even came to survive such things. For example: Amish people live all there life without any electricity at all! As for the all Americans, they grew up with nothing, but as the years went by, more and more things were discovered and invented. New ideas just kept coming and coming over the years. How this would relate to the book "Feed" is that,...about 73% of the population has the "feed," because, without the feed, there were less opportunities for you, such as: jobs and etc. Titus and his friends grew up this way, that's why they reacted the way they did when meeting such a person like Violet. Who she had lived without the "feed" until the age of seven. She had experienced living a totally normal life before getting the "feed" who feeds you all of your desires and the latest trends, music and etc. We grow up to an environment, thinking that the way it's always been...is considered "normal." Who would have thought that something as strange and powerful as the "feed" would come along. It would change the society forever. What use to matter seems to not matter as much, just like being discarded...never existent, just gone. How we grow up would always have an impact on us because it's what we know. Let me say that again, "it's what we know." Change, is what we can't face. What matters is who's going to stand up for the other percentage,...looking at the outcome of it all. To be honest, and from my experience,...there's not many of us that do stand up for the other percentage. If so, what shall be done to change the other 73% who's against us? Especially when the so-call government is part of that 73%. We grow up, wanting to improve the economy, but we need to look for the good in bad in what's it's worth when doing it. In the book "feed," many of them had no idea of what it was like without the feed, because that's how they grew up. It's like, the basics against the upgrades,...the regulars against the awesome(s). What'll the outcome be? Who's going to change it? We need understandment!

"Feed" BLOG#2

-Respond to the following passage: "They're also waiting to make you want things. Everything we've grown up to with...it's all streamlining our personalities so we're easier to sell to...they do these demographic studies that divide everyone up into a few personality types, and then you get ads based on what you're supposedly like. They try to figure out who you are, and to make you conform to one of their types for easy marketing" (p.80-81). Relate this to marketing tactics in today's society. What is your "type?" What ads would you get if you had feed?" How often would you "chat" if you had the "feed?" How would "chatting" affect modern-day communications?

How this relates to marketing tactics today is that they try and appeal to everyone and anyone who they can get to buy their products that they are selling. I would say my type has got to be either really sporty or plain and simple. The ads I would get if I had feed would be the most latest music releases along with the newest trends and styles. To be honest, if I did have feed; I would "chat" about most of my day till I get tired out. How "chatting" would affect modern-day communications is if everyone were to make "chatting" a habit then talking face to face in person wouldn't be normal anymore. Everyone would be so used to "chatting" through their feed instead of face to face that interacting in reality would be so hard just to do.

-Respond to Titus' reaction to his parents buying him an upcar (p.96-97)

Titus' reaction to his parents buying him an upcar made him forget about everything completely that's been bothering him in that very point in time. He was very happy and excited to take Violet out once he had got his car. In my opinion, If my parents told me that they were going to buy me a car, I would also feel that same happiness that Titus did; instead I don't have a permit or license actually. This is Titus' reaction, "Oh, god!" "Oh, god! Oh, Mom- Dad-this is-oh, shit! Holy shit! Are you kidding! Your the best mom and dad ever!" (p.118) Titus was completely speechless, and that is my evidence for saying at the time he thought of none of his worries but the car that he would be getting from his parents... because they believe he was brave and have been going through such hard times.

-In a consumeristic society, once things have outlived their usefulness, they tend to be discarded. How might this attitude affect the way people interact with one another? How might it affect the way they think of the past?

How might this attitude affect the way people interact with one another is that being in a relationship wouldn't mean as much anymore as it did in the past. Soon enough, relastionships will just come and go because of the way they interact. How it may affect the way they think of the past is that whatever becomes useless will be discarded and just left behind in the past because people start to believe there is no reason keeping old ways in the past because of new ways to interact, to think, to do in a regular basis.

"Feed" BLOG#1

-"We went to the moon to have fun, but the moon turned out to completely suck." How does this sentence set up the novel?

This sentence sets up the novel in the future because if your sane, no one on this earth in this time does to the moon just to have fun and say it would suck. The teenagers that are saying this are also very spoiled and bratty. Just because it's their Spring Break, they go to the moon with the intentions of drinking, getting high, and dance to have fun. Another thing this sentence sets up the novel by showing that the teenagers dod get what they want. A character, Violet said in the story was, "When you have the feed all your life, you're brought up to not think about things." [Pg. 113] The teenagers thinks of their desires only, not even knowing how things were different back then, and the difference now in their time.

-Why do you think the author whose the names he did-- Titus, Link, Violet, and so on--for his characters? What might their names say about the world they live in?

I think the author chose the characters names like: Titus, Link, Violet, and so on-- because he's setting the characters names to seem like it's futuristic; like in the future. What it says about the world is that it's changed alot from the past and how it's more developed. I also believe this because the author could of really used just any names but he chose to upgrade the names instead, since the setting of the book is futuristic and all. For example: Mary is a common old name. (Like the virgin Mary) ---See the difference.

-This book is dedicated, "To all those who resist the feed." What exactly is the feed? What does it mean to resist the feed? Is there anything similar today, and in what ways might you (or people you know) resist the feed? What are the advantages or disadvantages of having a feed?

I believe that when the author wrote, "To all those who resist the feed," [M. T. Anderson], he meant feed as all of consumerism. What it means to resist the feed is to not always be gullable and haveing to always keep up with all the latest trends and music e.t.c. Knowing your limits and still knowing you are your own person/individual and that is what makes everyone unique. Even with all the flaws and different desires, wishes, and motivation in life. If we were all alike, there would be nothing that stands out at all about each and every one of us. I truly believe that people today who resists the feed has got to be those who really stays true to thyself. Yeah, of course we've all atleast went by the feed atleast once or so, but it's what we stand for that really shows the best of us. We have our own opinions and minds of our own. The advantages of feed is that you get to lay back and let it do all the work for you. We start to not even think of anything at all; just nothing. The disadvantages has got to be having to still live and make every little mistake on the way, overcoming all obstacles; Falling and still being able to rise in the end. This is what makes life worth awhile. I know it's possible though, because having to really live by feed is alot of money; surely not everyone has the money to live by all of consumerism with it's latest trends, songs, hair styles, e.t.c. It makes us human and who we are by knowing how to cope with what we get. "Taking what you get, and be grateful."