Concluding Thoughts

15 December 2015

In the End...

Expo 1213 - What is Work?

Maddy Payne

Work is work. Work is getting up in the morning to brush your teeth and wash your face.  It is going to classes everyday and resisting the temptation to skip.  It is getting a job and working for pay.  Work is everywhere.  Work is also slaving away in sweat shops, being forced into the sex slavery business, and getting paid seventy some cents an hour while men are paid a dollar.  Work is a fundamental word that holds many different meanings and connotations.  It is seen and found everywhere - good or bad, fair or unfair.  

This semester I learned a lot about work.  Personally - with having a lot of homework, and in class - with learning about work.  Before taking this course, I never really questioned what the word "work" really meant or what it could be applied to.  For me, work was getting a job, going in for shifts, and getting a pay check at the end of the month.  However, after this course I have learned that work is actually so much more.  I learned that work connects to and is found is so many different things - books, poems, pictures, cartoons, world issues, gender inequality, slavery, alienation, the absurd, technology, utopia and dystopia, idleness, emotional labor, stereotypes, incentive, jargons, bullshit and more.  

And, as a result of this course, I have become a better writer.  I have become better at analyzing and interpreting things.  And I have become better at making connections between sources.  

I am grateful for all that has been taught to me this semester and I would 100% recommend this course to anyone.  

Thanks!

Maddy Payne

BNW

15 December 2015

Work and Technology

Expo 1213 - What is Work?

Maddy Payne

The society of Brave New World (BNW), in addition to being a contradiction within itself, also warns the American society of technology and the power that comes with it. Technology effects most aspects within the BNW society - birth, life and death. Individual, intellectual, and spiritual growth is limited by technology and work in BNW.

"In the Bottling Room all was harmonious bustle and ordered activity. Flaps of fresh sow's peritoneum ready cut to the proper size came shooting up in little lifts from the Organ Store in the sub-basement. Whizz and then, click! the lift-hatches hew open; the bottle-liner had only to reach out a hand, take the flap, insert, smooth-down, and before the lined bottle had had time to travel out of reach along the endless band, whizz, click! another flap of peritoneum had shot up from the depths, ready to be slipped into yet another bottle, the next of that slow interminable procession on the band. (1.32)"

The quote above shows how so humans are not even reproducing anymore; instead, they are reproducing through work. Babies are made through test tubes, technology, and science. They are conditioned with technology to act and think a certain way. And, put simply, they act as a commodity rather than an individual. In this society technology and advancements contain all the things these people need to live their lives. They are entirely depend upon it. Technology has replaced child birth, family, love, reading, philosophy, thinking, and religion.


The danger of working with technology is that it is consuming. Even today we can see technology taking over people's lives. Work itself is consuming and can alienate people from their lives and themselves. And, working with technology, the individual is already alienating him or herself from others and thus, alienating themselves faster.

Free Write: Connections between alienated labor and the absurd

12 November 2015

The Absurd

Expo 1213 - What is Work?

Maddy Payne

What connections do you/can you make/see between alienated labor (or alienation) and the absurd? 

THE connections between alienated labor and the absurd come in the form of doing meaningless work that does not satisfy anyone or anything and trying to find inherent value there but not discovering any. 

Many people today perform work that alienates them from the work itself.  When people get up in the morning it is like the same routine everyday over and over again.  It is somewhat robotic and what used to be pleasant become monotonous.  However, this idea is also ironic because the individual can be alone in the world while he or she is constantly surrounded by people.  

You are alienated from work, which alienates you, and then work becomes your identity.  

My brain hurts. 

Utopia or Dystopia?

1 December 2015

Brave New World
Expo 1213 - What is Work?

Maddy Payne

Brave New World, written by Aldous Huxley, is a contradiction within itself because it presents itself as a utopian society; however, for some it is clearly a dystopian society.  Particularly for the Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon people, it is a utopian society since they were born with a less developed brain because they were given less oxygen before birth.  The three lower classes neither have an understanding of anything besides their basic needs and the norms of society nor do they question the ways of society.  They simply exists and keep the society alive - living, working, reproducing, dying, and repeat.  

Most Alphas and Betas also function in a similar way; however, they have a more developed brain.  And, as a result, a small amount of Alphas will, time to time, question the system and go against the norms of their society - the norms that have been deep seated in them since birth.  An example of a character who does not see this Brave New World as a utopian society is Bernard Marx- an Alpha that does not feel as if he can fit in. 

Brave New World presents a interesting type of utopian society that in a way disguise the characteristics that do not make it a utopian society.  Everyone is "equal;" yet the reproduction system in BNW includes giving certain eggs less oxygen.  Thus, there really is not a choice.  The people of this society are also trained even before birth to act, see, and think a particular way.  There are no wars; there is no poverty.  Everyone is free from religion.  Everyone is free from emotional connections.  Everyone is free from families.  And everybody belongs to everyone else. 

And yet, is it truly a utopian society if people are being controlled to act, think, and see a certain way?  Then there are those like Bernard who break free from the holds of this BNW society; and when he does the society around him quickly goes from being a utopian to a dystopian.  Once Bernard challenged the status quo, goes against society, and starts to think on his own, he is banished by Mustapha Mond. 

Seemingly free.... but not truly.