Dec 2, 2009
"Redesign Design Itself"
For one reason or another, the quote "We must resign design itself" in the film The 11th Hour has really stuck with me. I feel that this is the most obvious appeal to young adults and teens because it seems exciting to be able to revolutionize the world in such a significant way. The film is instructing us to make change by rethinking everything we have ever thought about. This reminds me of so many of the books we have read because we have so greatly discussed bringing social change. Though bringing a change in our universe is on a much larger scale, it still requires the same steps that take place in any revolution. We must rethink what we already know. In the case of "The Mole People", redefining the word "homeless" actually led people to thinking they were no longer homeless. Their tunnel became their new community and suddenly a large issue was no longer one at all. It was not the situation that changed, but their outlook, and suddenly other improvements in their life occurred. I feel that the movie is urging us to redefine conserving, reusing and most importantly, revolutionizing. One might feel that cutting back on consumerism would be roughing it, but if they simply redefined their sacrifices, they might be more driven to bring change.
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Taryn, your post just struck me hard after reading the beginning parts of "Ishmael". This theme of 'redesigning design itself' can be seen in the beginning of "Ishmael" in the form of Ishmael challenging the narrator to, in a way, redesign his own mythology. In your post you said that the film was "instructing us to make change by rethinking everything we have ever thought about." Ishmael does the same to his pupil as well as us, the readers. The breaking down of "Mother Culture's" truths and re-establishing the design we have evolved and developed by is revolutionary. These characters in the story are really and fundamentally Daniel Quinn's puppets. He explains his concepts and theories directly to the reader between the teacher-student role, constructing the audience as avid listeners and students themselves. Just as Ishmael shows the narrator how to redesign his perception of the cosmos and of life, Quinn is telling us to reflect upon those same principles. It will be interesting to see how "Ishmael" pans out due to this developing concept.
ReplyDeleteI think that the points that Taryn and Lexi bring up here can be applied to other aspects of the film as well. As it is, the film outlines many ways in which the level of sophistication (albeit waste and deterioration of environment) that humans have grown accustomed to may be revolutionized to promote global well-being. Besides using systems of nature to illustrate what could be achieved, the film also shows many examples of everyday things that could be utilized to promote such a revolution.
ReplyDeleteIf we take these ideas as what the film seeks to promote, it may become possible to cite the film as an instructional piece. Taking this back a bit, to look at much of the literature from this semester, we can see the idea come through in several works, including the work of Jennifer Toth and Daniel Quinn, but also going back to Marjane Satrapi's "Persepolis" and Dorothy Gilman's "If I Were A Man". Each story outlines a problem, at least in part and gives some sort of reworked solution, as Taryn notes well, some tunnel dwellers revolutionized their own thinking so far as to convert their homeless identity into a home psychologically. Satrapi's character confronts her reader with a solution of immaturity. The confusion of her young heroine offers the reader chance for unconventional change and deliberation. While Satrapi uses childhood and inexperience, Gilman uses the absurd to characters what we find to be the norm or ideal, equality of gender.
By giving readers old ideas in new ways, the authors revolutionize a style which in turn reorganizes the process an audience must use to deal with their content.