University of Chicago - So, Where Is Waldo, Really?

“Where’s Waldo?” is a fairly loved book by children, who immerse themselves into the search of a particular man with a red and white striped sweater. Time flies by, and sometimes people find themselves in a rage as they cannot find Waldo. When looking for Waldo, people go through similar patterns. They skim through the page full of different people, looking for the familiar color of red and white or for the familiar face. I did too, shoving my face into the page, eyes rolling around to find that one drawing. Frequently, you get fooled by other Waldo imposters with similar clothes or hairstyles and find yourself deeply irritated.

Interestingly, the seekers of Waldo do not seem to care about other characters or objects on the same page. There might be other interesting characters which are more favorable than Waldo, but nobody cares. Men might like a female character better than a male Waldo, but they too look for the long-chinned man with glasses. The obligation of having to find Waldo makes the view parochial and people become ignorant to themselves. A better question than “Where is Waldo?” will be “Who else is on this page?”

                  When people become prepossessed with an idea, they feel a sort of an obligation to meet the goals of that idea. Their views become narrowed down to a point to where they only look for it. Think about teens who are about to choose their majors. They usually have a predilection to a certain field of study. It is likely formed by the influence of parents or society. Adults pressure teens to find and appropriate major and society brainwashes teens about what is a favorable job and what is not. It is similar to the book asking children to specifically find Waldo. Due to the pressure and the shown social hierarchy of jobs, teens feel an obligation to choose some popular majors, such as medics, law, or economy. There is a whole scope of other majors and jobs to choose from, but teens altogether only look for a certain thing, Waldo. When they do not get to their goal, or find Waldo, they become outraged and depressed about it. Not only teens, but many people do feel negative feelings by not meeting other’s standards and expectations.

                  People should not be depressed by such outcomings, when in the first place they were not given a chance to look at the page thoroughly and find a character in their favor. If they were asked to find their favorite character on the page, people will have different answers of their own choice. Less people will be hopeless of not being able to fit themselves into a set cast. More people will not feel depressed, because they found the character they like. Of course, Waldo might be someone’s favorite character, but there is a higher chance that he is not considering there are about thousand other characters on the same page. Allow a person to navigate through diverse experience and pick the one that suits his or her character. Next time someone asks you to find Waldo, point at a character of preference and answer, “Here he is. That’s my Waldo.”

Free School Meal

Not so long ago, the Seoul mayor put up a campaign pledge about free school meal for every elementary and middle school students, but personally I do not think such assistance is needed. Students who can afford to buy their own meal should do so. Still, I can understand why people want it.

Sponsoring for school meal through taxes of the public allows equality for all of the students. Before, the free meal was only given to students who have minimum standard of living. The standard for dividing students needing meal aid and those who do not can be very subjective. Instead of selectively supporting students, it is fairer for every student to be able to enjoy their meal when it is gratis.

Former students who were supported can also feel ease at receiving their free meal. Many students had been feeling shame about their circumstances of the inability to pay their meal bill. Such students feel psychologically hurt, which can be prevented by free meal policy which gives equal treatment to all.

Ben X Full Review

           Unexpected but disappointing. These two words describe my feelings after seeing the movie "Ben X" to the end. The movie was fascinating and kept me anticipating until the end, but maybe that anticipation and my hope for a ideal happy ending are what made the ending unsatisfying.

           I believe most of the 11b4 classmates had failed to predict what will happen after seeing the first half of the movie. Most of the predictions were that Ben will take revenge on the bullies or that he will suicide. Of course, Ben recorded a video of his suicide, but it was unexpected in the sense that the suicide was faked. It was a master plan devised by him and his family, along with Ben's imaginary being, Scarlite. The advent of Scarlite and her truth was a important factor that made predictions fall out of aim, making "Ben X" unique. After taking ecstasy, Ben starts seeing real-life Scarlite, who comforts him and props him up when he is feeling desperate. Scarlite is the symbol of Ben's mind defense mechanism. In order to keep Ben from psychologically breaking down, his mind created a fantasy of Scarlite, which will protect Ben from outward stimulus. Through Scarlite, Ben was able to stay rational. It might seem that Ben was weak in not being to do anything independently. However, considering that Scarlite was a product of Ben's self, we can know that Ben had an unexpectedly strong mind, resulting the ending to take a new branch.

           Although the ending was fresh and surprising, it was a dismay. At Ben's funeral, most of Ben's acquaintances attended and cried for the tragic death of Ben. Even Ben's classmates and the bullies showed remorse. There is a high chance that they are feeling guilty for the death itself and scared that their actions were revealed and that they might be get severely punished, rather than feeling contrite about the bulling. Maybe that is why even after the funeral Ben was not able to go back to the "ordinary" life at "ordinary" school. He ended up at being a ranch, talking to his hallucination, Scarlite. His parents, who had been with him for his whole life, now understand him, but there is no certainty that Ben will be able to live a happy life behind the scenes. What if Ben later realizes that there was no Scarlite after all or his parents died of age? The breakdown of his psychological defense and the deficiency of interpersonal relationships will not be able to save Ben when he is desperate. Maybe the ending is realistic in a sense that most autistic people become secluded gradually. I just ideally hoped that people would be truly contrite and thus Ben would be socially integrated again.

           Except for the resolution which was somewhat unsatisfactory, "Ben x" was an enjoyable movie. It had a surprising twist in the end, unique technique of combining cyber space and reality, along with the detailed description of Ben's inner mind. If the reality itself was more ideal, more satisfying movie would have been possible.

10 Fictions Flashing

FLASH FICTION

 

1. [Facebook Chat]

"Hey :)"

Seen 12:48 PM

Right now, 4:30 PM

 

2. Dated. Kissed. Looked at the clock.

6:30. Great. Late for morning exercise.

 

3. The car skidded on the icy road and crashed into a snowy tree. The driver climbed out of the car seeking for help. There were no footprints left behind.

 

4. Oh great, a blackout. Maybe I'll take a nap for 10 minutes and wak...

 

5. 'I think I forgot something.'

"Please hand in your essays."

 

6. It was Christmas eve, and the girl was worried that her Santa might not come. Crying, she went in to her parent's room and found her present.

 

7. MMrr..  GGaarrrriioocchh,, II  wwaassnn''tt  aabbllee  ttoo  wwrriittee  mmyy  eessssaayy  bbeeccaauussee  tthhee  kkeeyybbooaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

 

8. "Dentist: Discounts on Halloween"

 

9. Too much solar eclipse, forever eclipse.

 

10. A boy crafted his lost dog out of clay and blew on it.

"I want to do the same thing as God did."



Ban X? : Ben X Review

           When I first saw the movie title, I mistook it as "Ban X". Because of the mistake, I was anticipating a mathematical movie or a socially motivating one encouraging us to "ban problem x." The wrong expectation made the movie from the start very surprising.

           The sudden movie introduction with a cyber character from Archlord and the opening sequence based on the game interface was a creative approach. Such intro is unexpected from most of the movies we encounter, because actual use of computer games as movie's main components is rare. I assume that the reason is that the movies want to depict something more dramatical than computer games. However, in the case of "Ben X," the use of game interface was one part that made it interesting. After few minutes, the real title of the movie came out, when the game character slashed X, forming the word "Ben X." The real title did not have a cliché feeling either.

           From the title and the opening sequence, I assumed that the movie might be about a game addict. The assumption seemed legible when main character, Ben, was seeing reality as part of the game. The scenes portraying the reality like a game were another parts that made the movie interesting and unordinary. He saw the real street as one in the game, dressed up by clicking the items, and saw the bullies as ogres. The narration of the movie was done by Ben, which seemed normal, except the fact that he was not getting along well with others. However, later the movie revealed that Ben was suffering from autism and bullying because of the syndrome.

           In the last part, Ben seemed to decide to end the bullying. I do not have a clue about how the movie will end, but based on the previous interviews in the movie, someone might die. Ben can mistake reality for game and kill the bullies or maybe he will suicide, which doesn't seem likely. No matter what kind of ending "Ben X" will take and how Ben will ban bullying, it has gotten my attention and I am looking forward to seeing rest of the movie.

The Degree, Not the Act Itself, Is What Counts : Earthlings Review

             The family Friday night has arrived and you wait for the great feast. Your mother prepares a large steaming steak and puts the plate in front of you. The steak seems juicy and your mouth waters. Then, a scene of a dying cow writhing on the floor with blood gushing out of its slashed throat suddenly flashes in front of you. In front of your eyes, the scrumptious meat turns into a mere burnt piece of cow corpse. The "Earthlings," by Shaun Monson, had succeeded in a way to implement gruesome awareness of part of animal reality.

             Many reviewers act emotionally to The Earthling as the film itself succeeded in approaching its audiences in pathos, rather than in logos. Reviewers simply come to consensus of becoming a vegetarian for the humane treatment of animals. They become appalled at the graphic description of the film and "realize" how barbaric their lives were to be once indifferent to the plight of the animals. However, I personally do not think that such matters of animal rights are  as simple as people consider them to be. The "edifying" reviews make meat-eaters seems like sinners, ones without any "moral" or "compassion." Pathos is important, but it is not the master key to such a difficult problem. Rationally thinking, I do not find fault with the pure carnivorous act nor think it as a sin. The act of one animal species preying upon another species is a biologically natural phenomenon, not a demonic practice.

             "Earthlings" itself also implies about speciesism, the discrimination between different species. Although the film has a title called "earthlings," it focuses primarily on the wrong treatment of animals by human beings and the speciesism laid beneath. However, people should not forget that plants also inhibit earth. They are another species and another living life. If all species are to gain same respect, animals and plants are alike. Thus, herbivores and carnivores are ultimately for the same goal of gaining the needed nutrients, whether they achieve it through eating meat or eating plants. Vegetarianism is not more holy or sacred than an ordinary omnivorous diet of human beings. It is just a difference in diet habits, nothing more. Reviewers should not be chastising non-vegetarians as morally defected people without either compassion to animal beings or the will to change for the animal's future. Reviewers of the film tend to go deeply into the food part, probably because the food category took a major part and was most graphically described in "Earthlings," which also means that the film was quite biased in some ways. Among the five categories of pets, food, entertainment, clothes, and science, the field of food was most closely related to the human's three basic necessities of life, food, clothing, and shelter, considering the fact that there are other equally competent artificial fibers that can replace animal fur in the field of clothing. Since food is one of the basic necessities and practice of eating meat is a natural behavior, there is no rational reason for morally banning meat from the society.

             The real problem lies with the degree of human greed. Returning to the topic of food, it seems clear there is nothing wrong with the actual act of meat consumption, but the problem comes with the degree of the consumption. A heavy diet of meat of every meal is actually an overconsumption. There are also serious health diseases relating to the overconsumption of meat, such as obesity, arthrosclerosis, and colorectal cancer. Such heavy meat consumption triggers a health warning and can be prevented. Human beings, as omnivorous creatures, by consuming adequate amount of meat and more greens, they can be moral about the animals. With the whole animal slaughter for food amounting to a tremendous number, changes in diet of billions people can accumulate into a dramatic decrease of animals dying from human extravagance. Even in the process of slaughtering, people can reduce the pain of sacrificing animals. For example, "Earthlings" presents the violations by the Kosher slaughter, in which they "use the electric prods on mobilized animals," "invert frightened animals for the slauther's convenience," and "rip the tracheae and esophagus before the animal has bled to death." At least if the slaughter houses adhered to their rules for "cleanliness and minimal suffering," that would be the best situation given to the animals. Other four fields except food shows the extremes of human greed and luxury. Other animals kill animals to satisfy their basic needs, such as food, but not for pleasure. Pets, luxurious fur coats, circuses, and animal experiments into cosmetics are not related to basic necessities of human. Animals killed in the process mentioned before died because of pursuit of human pleasure and greed.

             The film itself does not elucidate solutions in the narration, but I think the film itself is a form of solution. Shaun Monson stated his strategy as "hope that people will have an open mind." The basic solution to the problem lies with changing the underlying perception of the society about other species and living beings, both animals and plants. In this materialistic world, other lives are not treated as "lives," but rather as profitable objects. The perception is evident in a satiric scene when a woman asks the price of a fur coat only to receive a reply, "It's $49,500." There is a paradox. While people deem the value of human life as immeasurable, they ruthlessly kill and attach price tags to what was once living. "Earthlings," although it might be biased and extreme in some cases, definitely aroused attention in its watchers and made them aware even a little bit of what kinds of plight the animals are facing. Instead of having short-termed superficial empathy ending shortly with the film, people should consider what devastating effects human greed had put animals into in a long-term. Next time you see a juicy T-bone steak, do not feel guilty about eating it. Just think before you eat.