Image Analysis: Time VT Massacre Cover

In regards to the Virginia Tech Massacre I'll just say: May all the victims both still with us and no more, their families and their friends, and everyone with compassion find peace and happiness. Live life in celebration of those who lost that gift.

And now the Image and Nerdy Analysis:

This image is one which I find to be quite powerful. When I first looked at this magazine cover, I had a very immediate and seemingly personal reaction even though neither I nor anyone else I know was directly involved with the Virginia Tech massacre. When I looked at the image I felt a connection, I felt immediately the sense of collective loss from the tragedy and the celebration of the lives lived and the survivors who live on. But to truly analyze the image critically, and to take apart the code which I initially ignored is to look into the true power and meaning behind images.

In looking at the image, while ignoring the text, the viewer is presented with twenty-five smaller blocks, twenty-four of which contain cropped images of various individual’s faces. The denotation of the image is twenty-four essentially anonymous faces; most of which are smiling, and none indicating sadness or grief. Taken exclusively for its denotative meaning, the image (out of context and without the text) would appear to be an overt celebration of happiness, a grid collage of someone’s friends, or even a yearbook (although reading it as such is trying to place it into a context). When removed from the cultural framework, and thus the connoted meaning of the image, the picture seems to only denote happiness in a not-very-striking way. And yet while a person who sees the image isn’t presented with an overtly sad or indicatively mourning picture, they still are overcome with a sense of loss and grief tied in with a celebration of these twenty-four slain people’s lives.

When looking at the picture (still without necessarily even considering the text), the image is read with its connotatively poignant message which strikes to the heart of most people who encounter it. Putting this image within the greater cultural context, a consumer of that picture generally knows and recognizes that it an overt expression of grief and feels the sadness and the profound sense of loss in relation to the Virginia Tech Massacre. The connotation reaches so far beyond the limits of what the image actual denotes (twenty-four anonymous mostly smiling faces), and is what the viewer emotionally responds to.

In this way, the image is read as a very powerful message and is generally seemingly read without a code. When looked at critically, however, one can observe the social environment’s encoding on the image in the mind of the individual. The image message was produced for the audience of the world who understands it and can place the picture into the surrounding social framework.

While most people viewing this image (myself included) wouldn’t be immediately or consciously aware of the disconnect between the denotative and the connotative meaning, the code of the message is bound up in the cultural context. The image denoted and its connoted meaning are very different, but individuals viewing the image apply the cultural context code to make sense of it and read the connoted sadness and grief, the powerful immortalization, and celebration for the victims’ lives, even if they are not directly related to the massacre.

Fighting Ignorance, One Reactionary at a Time.

Balboa Park Earth Day was a wonderful event. I was truly greatful for the experience. While I know our attempts to talk sense to the reactionaries at the park fell on deaf ears, hopefully those around who witnessed the events, arguments, discussion, and admittedly essentially a few shouting matches, were able to objectively weigh and determine their own opinions, and gain insight into either side. I respected everyone I talked to and was lucky to have interacted with them, even the ones who evidently think lowly of me (and my opinions).

And as a point of sharing what I learned: If your faith cannot coexist with science, then my biased and ineffectual judgment is that your faith is weak. If you don't want evolution or other scientific truths to be taught in school because you believe it goes against your theology, then you haven't true faith in God or the Bible. According to their faith, God and the Bible cannot be proved wrong. If rather than recognizing that God made and allowed for Science as a greater ability to discover truths, and recognizing that if your faith is strong then you can bring Faith and Science into harmonious coexistence, you shut your bodily senses, your mind, heart, and soul off from Science or Truth, then you haven't true Faith at all and are therefore shutting your soul off from God. What you have is a grossly distorted and misrepresented dogma which is indeed contrary to God and Biblical teachings.

This can be extend to other ideological principles as well. If you cannot listen to what people with opposing beliefs make their case or defend their position, let alone form your own balanced argument in respond, or at least critically analyze your views and the validity of theirs in your mind, then your beliefs are like not as strong as you might like to think.

I would hope that these ideas aren't excessively incendiary, but I would also hope that they would make you think critically about your own ideas. I know I'm trying to evaluate my own.

Experiment #3

***Note - every "----------" indicates a change in point of view. Confusing? Of course.

The day had been the perfect spring weather in the afternoon, but come evening dark and ominous clouds soared in overhead overshadowing the failing sun. By the time the sun succumbed to the inevitable, the clouds covered the entire sky. The pale moon was shrouded in darkness, and the stars failed to offer any radiance for the shivering earth.
Through the consuming dark a young woman dressed in all black (save for the words ‘Fall Out Boy’ on a broken heart logo) makes her way through the brush behind the apartment buildings closely followed by another black-clad figure. She works her way from building to building, peering around the corner in a meticulous (albeit unsteady) manner followed by her likeness, similarly wavering. She steadies herself with a hand on a rail of the stairway and starts to slowly ascend. On one of the steps she catches her foot and stumbles, breathing a “fuck!” in the otherwise still air. The girl following behind her emits a quick “shhhhhh” which fades off into a giggle. Reaching the top, the two slink their way to the apartment’s front door. The first girl struggles with the handle which is evidently locked. The second girl eyes the first and points behind her with a shaky finger while mouthing “back door.” The girls walk around the corner and up the fire escape stairs bouncing from wall to wall as it echoes loudly in the narrow corridor. A light in the balcony window in the next building flickers on for a just a second, and then the blinds are edged back. With a loud bang the second girl throws open the door into a darkened room and the two rush in.
One girl charges down the indoor stairs to the kitchen, flicking on all the lights, the kitchen sink, oven, stove, and television while the other maneuvers around the top landing flipping each switch, turning on the two bathroom faucets, plugging the bathtub, throwing the towels in, and turning the water on full steam. The two meet back at the top floor where they pound several times on the door labeled “c.” Then they bolt out of the apartment and down to path, running away into the black night.
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I awake with a start as I hear some noises coming from outside my balcony window. I turn up the light but quickly rethink it as my eyes burn and flip them back off. I slide off my bed, and creep to the window where I inch back the blinds and peer across to the next building. I see girls stumbling in the staircase and barging into Danny, Mick, Jesse, and that short guy’s apartment. It looked like two of Danny’s best friends so I figure they’ve been drinking and decided to give Dan Dan our Drinking Man a drunken visit.
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Pretty upset Dan decides just to go to bed. He pops some sleeping pills (feeling kind of guilty) and jumps into bed. His mind’s still racing through the argument in his head. He regretted losing his temper and saying those mean things he refused to recall, but they really shouldn’t have pushed him, controlled him, and treated him like that. They were his friends weren’t they? Oh no, were they still his friends? He tries to think about happier things. He finally got out of the relationship he didn’t want, that’s good. So what if they thought she was perfect for him. It was his life, wasn’t it? He pulls the covers tight as he finally feels his thoughts sink away.
Dan wakes back up as he hears some creaking of the stairs. He figures that it’s just Mick and Jesse coming back from that party they wanted him to check out. It’s too bad he turned it down because of the girls. He starts to drift off again, but it startled by the pounding echoing in the walls coming from the fire escape.
The two girls rush in, and through the door Dan realizes it isn’t the guys. His heart drops as he hears the familiar sound of his two best friends making their way around the apartment. He knows it’s them - - He can feel it. He can hear it in their breath and in their steps.
He waits for them to have their drunken tirade as he hears them pound on the switches and crank up the faucets, all the while wondering with guilt how he’d evoked so much hurt and anger from them. He let’s them pound on his door and can’t decide if he should answer it, ultimately thinking better of it on account of their impulsively violent state. He waits for them to leave and then checks out the damage.
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I can’t believe that he would say those things! I never once tried to control his life. I – both Carrie and I – only wanted to help him out. We only wanted what’s best for him. I mean, when he met us he couldn’t have had a healthy relationship if his life depended on it. Hell, his first girlfriend here he didn’t talk to for two whole weeks! We had to solve the problem for him, he wouldn’t do it himself. Besides, that bitch was just using him!
Carrie and I take 3 more shots and then we reason we need to do something to get this out of our system. We need closure, we need clearance, and we need it now. I throw on my black Fall Out Boy sweater, hood up, with my black pants and shoes. Carrie also wears all black too although I’m too pissed off to really take notice.
Anger aside, I think it’s fucking hilarious what we’re doing. How hardcore are we? Turning on everything! He’ll waste his time turning it off, it’ll piss him off so much! I mean that asshole deserves what he gets. We’re the best friends he’s ever had and he really made me regret ever trying.
Whatever dude, he’ll never be happy without us. He needs us. I think after tonight he’ll realize that.
But we’re leaving him tonight.

Exercise #1

Even the trees shudder as the dark clouds and haze fall over the canyon’s wall. Largely unaware of this I continue climbing, struggling up a pile of dirt and rocks. It’s only when I reach the top that I realize there’s no one in sight. I take a deep breath in through my nose and out through my mouth, smelling pre-rain on inhale. I look around and down at myself and see my hands and knees are covered with scrapes and cuts, but it doesn’t bother me.
I search the ground for a perfect rock. A unique rock to hold onto as a symbol of my climb, my accomplishment. I find the rock that I want. Picking it up, I dust it off and feel this truly was a treasure worth the trip; Somewhat polished, but with enough roughness to look wild. Beautiful, I think. I shake with a start and drop the rock as a flash of lightning and immediate thunder strikes in the sky above me, the rock my treasure slips out of my hand and lands at my feet. I grab it quickly and shove it in my pocket with the rest of my day’s loot as I hear rain drops begin to pound the trees around me far away at first, then closer, closer. Finally I feel heavy and large drops on my head. The wind picks up and almost knocks me over…Again. The rain starts to pelt my face.
Soon the hill I’m standing on turns to mud and I start to slide. Down the hill, with the rocks and the mud I go. My belt loop gets snagged on a deep root and I slide no further while the jagged rocks swimming in mud scrape down my bare arms. I struggle to free myself, with much difficulty but no success. Finally, the weight of the mud and rocks piled at my back rip the belt loop off and I’m able to continue sliding, using my hands desperately pushing on anything I can to keep upright. Once I get to the bottom, I’m covered in mud and bleeding down my arms. To top that off, I’m shivering uncontrollably and see my breath bellow out of my mouth in the cold gray air, but not very far as the rain and the fog barely let me see the ground around my feet. All around me I hear and feel the pounding rain and howling wind.
It then occurs to me that coming alone without telling anyone was probably a dumb idea.
Luckily I know the way back to camp: down the path some ways, through the trees and brush, across the creek and then a straight shot across the grass.
I start to run down the path, but quickly my foot snags a root and I fly forward, hitting the ground with a jolt and lose my breath. I force myself up and get pelted with hale on my ascent. Small chunks of ice at first, then bigger. Golf ball size at least. As a few big ones hit my head I wince in pain. The rain continues along with the hale. I jump off the path under the safety of the trees, still getting drenched, but free from the hale mostly. Making my way down I finally get to where I can cut my way through the trees and across the creek. Only the creek is swollen, much higher and wider than before. My stepping stones are gone and the water is fast moving. I search along the creek for a good place to cross still under the shield of the trees long enough for the hale to stop. I find a good enough spot, and hold onto some branches as I stretch my right leg to the first stone. Good and steady. Now I try to bring my left leg around. Steady step, careful movement. Disaster.
I slip off the rock and into the water. It’s deep enough carries me. The good news is the mud is washed off so that ordeal has no evidence, but the bad news is any part of me that was dry has now been found out by water. I frantically grab for anything to get myself under control. A rock fails, too slippery – a root breaks off, too weak – air, water, no success. I manage to keep my head above the water, mostly, catching glimpses of the grey shadowy surroundings with my frantic breaths. I catch sight of an overturned tree, laying itself across the creek, bowing to help me out. I force my legs down and into the water, anchoring them on the bottom rocks and forcing my body up. Hands in front I grab for the log. The water is too strong and forces me into the log and a stray twig stabs my breastbone and now I see all the blood in the stream, from my hands, arms, and chest. I push back enough to unstick myself and pull my body to the side of the creek and out of the water. Soaking wet and still fighting for breath, I start to run as the rain turns to sleet. I’m sprinting so fast, although I know not where towards. I’m so disoriented and can’t see very far ahead. Luckily I make it to the camp as the sleet turns to snow, coming down sideways in the wind, burning my face and bare arms on impact. Our tent’s blowing over and my father and brother are trying to take it down. I make it in time to help them when it occurs to my dad that I’m shivering cold and very pale, bloody, and wet. He tries to relight the fire, but it’s far too windy. He takes me to the car, tells me to take off my cold clothes, and he throws all the sleeping bags over me and idles the car for its heater.
I’m tired and weak and cold.
My thoughts escape me.
I drift away.

Race and Challenging Discourses

I found Michael Stebbin's book Sex, Drugs, & DNA pretty interesting, and not a difficult read. Enough subtle humor to string it all along so you hardly know you got it from the Science and Engineering library! Definite liberal bias. Well if I had more time I'd like to explore the topics of the book more in depth, but seeing as class is starting and i haven't looked at the book in a little bit now, I've lost the meaningful passages. Here's a few i was able to rummage through and find again... The book covers science in general, stem cells, cloning, sex, gender, genetically modified stuff, race global warming, bioterrorism and such, the pending flu pandemic, drugs, healthcare, and science education..

"Remember: race is only a controversial issue because of racism. If it weren't for prejudice, race would be about as interesting as the genetics of hair color or any other run of the mill physical trait."

I do agree with this statement. Race (especially tied to ethnicity and as referenced in discourse) is essentially a culturally established category. While there are clear differences between people deriving from different geographic localities, they are more or less as inconsequential as eye color, just given cultural weight especially because of the history surrounding racial "discovery" and imperialism.

"One notion that has cropped up among those interested in ensuring racial equality is that there is no biological or indeed genetic basis for race. This is, of course, preposterous. There are undisputed biological differences between different populations in the world - from disease susceptibility to alcohol tolerance - and some of those difference happens to correspond with race. The real question for some time has been to what extent are there biological differences between different races."

here's the numbers he gives:

about 3 billion nucleotides in the human genome

99.9% of them are the same between any two individuals

so about 3 million differ

"10% of human genetic differences lie between people from different continents"

so that's only 300,000 nucleotides in difference corresponding to race

"the majority of the differences [between individuals] are common to all races and thus existed before the human peanut butter was spread around the world"

As I said, different but no more so (in fact less so) than other differences is the human genome. Indeed I can vary more from another person who looks like me than from a person of the exact opposite racial spectrum (strange thought), just in less visible, or invisible ways.

And on evolution/creationism in schools:

"What they all common is that they invoke God to explain the natural world and that they believe there has been a vast anti-Christian conspiracy amongst non-Christians and scientists to undermine their faith. Either way, the issue boils down to teaching faith in science classes rather than teaching proven science. The same people who want creationism taught as an alternative to evolution would be up in arms if a Muslim community announced that they would teach from the Koran in a science class.

If you ask a creationist if there is anything that could convince them that strict creationism does not provide a rational explanation of the real world, the answer is invariably 'No.' Thus, rational discourse over scientific findings ... falls apart through rigid unscholarly rhetoric based on religious extremism. This has prevented most fundamentalist Christian children from learning that there is nothing in the theory of evolution that really threatens the Christian faith."

It does boil down to a knee-jerk reaction to say "no" to something that seems alien (especially when it's surrounded by the controversy that evolution/creationism is. I can't tell you how many sermons were taught to me, mostly in youth group, about how to combat the evil that was evolution the big bang). And indeed Christianity and evolution can peacefully coexist in an individuals beliefs.

Of course such absolute rejection and denial without true engagement in any rational discussion or discourse isn't monopolized by evolution/creationism. Turn on Fox News if you're a democrat, or watch a Michael Moore documentary if you're a republican (or indeed look at anything which you fundamentally disagree with) and most likely you will find it hard to truly engage the piece on any real level. Instead you will probably criticize and challenge the discourse, and generally further justify your own opinions. Then switch to something that agrees with your opinions. You will likely feel engaged, but most likely it's more mental self-congratulations and reassurance than anything else. The problem with this means of engagement is that no one gets anywhere. They just reinforce their beliefs and clash with those who don't agree. That's why people always say not to talk about religion or politics.