Saturday, September 17, 2011

Back! With a Close Reading of DeLillo's White Noise

Hello! Sorry about being away, getting back to school has been...much more difficult than originally intended. Anyhow, I am actively working on the thesis, and am posting my first (admittedly far out) close reading of Don DeLillo's White Noise. I have also read Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49 and will be posting an analysis of it tomorrow.

Anyway, click the jump for some White Noise close reading!

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Catching Up: The Academic Direction of this Blog

Hello! I am still out of town, but I definitely wanted to update tonight to keep people up to date and to keep me on schedule.

This morning, I woke up to a friend's message that indicated his interest in discussion in these topics, but did not see their connection to Reagan as a person or the events as directly caused by his administration's policies. This is totally valid and understandable, so I would like to clear up the direction this blog is headed in academically.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

A Night Away from Reagan

hello! do not have access to a computer tonight so I cannot fully update. apologies! my girlfriend has me out seeing Atrocious. double post tomorrow!

Also, if you're shopping on Amazon, click on our ads and help support us! thanks to everyone for reading! please like us over on facebook or subscribe here for additional commentary and special posts!

EDIT: It is today. I am still out of town but have a computer so I will try to update / double update tonight! Thanks again for your support!

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Folk Music: Taking the National as Personal

On March 30th, 1981, John Hinckley, Jr. attempted to assasinate Ronald Reagan in public, outside of the Hilton Hotel in DC. Hinckley committed this act in order to win the love of Jodie Foster, who he had developed an obsession with after experiencing the film Taxi Driver, which was actually shown in full during the Hinckley's trial.

There has been a lot written about Hinckley, mostly bad, accusing him of being a psychotic who had a repeated history of stalking and possible conspiracy to murder. This is not far off the truth, in the real world. However, taken into the world of folk tales, Hinckley becomes something more: a hero in love, willing to kill to earn his dream girl. Pretty screwed up, right?

Chris Clavin wrote a whole song thinking otherwise. Within is a bevy of folk tall tale and romantic love, combined with economic dreams of status through possession and action. So let's look at Chris Clavin's "John and Jody." If you have a heart, consider buying the album. It's only $5 and helps an artist get out of debt. But examination begin!

Warren Buffet on "Coddling the Super-Rich"

My girlfriend, a devoted liberal, posted this link to facebook: Stop Coddling The Super-Rich. Buffett, as always, contributes an informed opinion to a reputable magazine in contrast to his own personal wealth. Buffett quickly separates himself as a usurer compared to "[earning] money from a job," in an effort to identify himself as a member of the super-rich and therefore qualified to speak for them. Being the third richest man in the world, this distinction should be obvious to any reader of a Buffett piece. What I would like to do here is provide a close reading of this article, examining word choice and positioning as to why Buffett would submit this besides gains in public respect such as he earned from my girlfriend.

Monday, August 15, 2011

OFFTOPIC: An Examination of Libya Pre-Crisis

This is a paper I wrote for Yahya Madra concerning the oil economy of Libya before the Qadhafi crisis. I realize it is off topic for this blog, but thought it would be an interesting read that relates somewhat to current events. Expect a double post tomorrow as I finish note taking on the suggested subjects.

So:

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Rothbard's Autopsy: A Libertarian Exercise


On the advice of "Ubermensch" from Left Libertarian, I read over Murray Rothbard's 1989 Ronald Reagan: An Autopsy. Rothbard writes not as a "left" libertarian, but rather as tradionalist, seemingly more in line with Ayn Rand's Objectivism than ensuring the public's freedom from government intervention.

Creative Destruction: Privatize the liquor stores!

Creative Destruction: Privatize the liquor stores!

This is just something I feel strongly about and have been involved with. Professor Weise makes some good points, and more people should read up on this issue. As a Marylander myself, the Pennsylvania laws seem idiotic especially when home to such great breweries as Troegs, Victory, Weyerbacher, and are one of the few East Coast states to even receive the revered beers of Russian River Brewing Company. Support freedom of liquor sales in PA, or at least some well revised laws!

Message Board Dynamics: Assessing the Plan-It-X Debacle

For a long time, I've done nothing but sing the praises of Plan-It-X records. Founded by Samantha Jane Dorsett (may she rest in peace) and Chris Johnston, it has been the home of various bands with varying levels of success, with the general idea being that no one should sell a CD unless they believe in the music and that if it ain't cheap, it ain't punk. A FAQ is available here, but let me quote a piece for ideology:

Q: WHAT IS THE POINT OF PLAN-IT-X?
A: we release music we love. music that we want other people to hear. plan-it-x records is not about making money. we are about getting punk music heard. punk rock is more than a business, or at least it should be. we sell all our cds for $5 postage paid. we still make enough money to feed ourselves and release more music. CDs only cost about $2 to make. think about that the next time you buy a $10 cd that's supposed to be d.i.y.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Bachmann Wins the Iowa Straw Poll

The now winner of what Jon Stewart noted as a tent contest, Michelle Bachmann has established herself as a viable candidate for the Republican Primaries. CNN has a data report available here.

Now, full disclosure, I am a pretty far left individual, but the point of this blog is to give fair coverage to both sides of the American discourse. The election of 2012 will be an obvious hotspot for every sort of discussion, but this straw poll may be a more interesting topic to talk about before everyone hops on to primary coverage.

Pop Music: Individual as Capital

To be clear, this is somewhat off the Reagan topic. It is, however, a quick look into modern international pop with a focus on defining the individual through material rather than personal terms. The major example here will be Annie's "Chewing Gum" from her 2004 album Anniemal.



An Introduction

Hello!

In a meeting about an honors thesis months ago, the idea was brought up to make a blog to chronicle articles, thoughts, and drafts of a cross-disciplinary thesis. The goal was set to make information accessible to all parties, as well as to catalog what is actually occurring while designing this work.

So what is being done? I am writing a thesis concerning the impact of Reagan and H.W. Bush era economics on current and then-current literature. In essence, how did a largely liberal artistic base react to a conservative economic policy? How did the death of the Fordian system affect Republicans as well? The demonization of Reagonomics is to be studied from the radical liberal to the black tie conservative, gauging cultural reactions through the literature created on all sides of the cultural divide.

And a divide it is! The goal of the thesis is a 35-60pg concentrated analysis of this cultural and economic shift. None of this would be possible without the gracious support of Stefanie Sobelle, Yahya Madra, and the English and Economic Departments of Gettysburg College. Thanks as well go to Professors Flynn and Goldberg, the current chair and the Honors Program director respectively.

So, this will be for fun and ideas. Reads of articles, analyses of things that may not fit into the general time frame, or other forms of media. PLEASE comment and email anything you think would be interesting, or would like commented on!

Thanks for reading!