Morretti's "Graphs, Maps and Trees"

       Franco Moretti's "Graphs, Maps and Trees", approaches a different kind of way to study literature. He uses scientific methods to study literature and history as a whole. Moretti thinks that we should study literature as a big picture in order to grasp the full effect of literature, because we will only be able to read a small percentage of novels in our lifetime. He incorporates graphs into his graphs to show the reader the trends of literary history from different countries and periods of time. These trends can mark the rise and fall of certain topics and genres and he tries to analyze the reasons behind the shifts in the graphs.
       There are multiple advantages to this writing style. I think that a graph is an awesome visual aid to the reader because they can look at a whole picture instead of the writer trying to explain an experiment or trend etc. Also by having a graph is can be a tool to look at the information in different view points such as time periods v.s. genres v.s. different countries. The more data that a writer has to show, the more credible he/she is as an author. I think a disadvantage for this writing style is that the writer didn't give analysis of the graphs and instead just left them for the reader to interpret, possibly incorrectly. Also, each novel written has a specific message behind it and by grouping them together in large chunks I feel takes away from each novel their contributions to society.
       Social, biological and physical sciences have benefited from this method of scientific writing, it is unbiased and shows only obtained information and then allows for interpretation and analysis. It would make life difficult for scientists if they didn't have tools such as charts and graphs to explain their research. Finding general trends is key and then answers/reasons will follow.
         When approaching SSTLS in different light, we wonder why Gary Shytengart choose to write the book. He wanted to alarm society of the path we on with superficial priorities, technology taking over our society, and our future lack of human relationships. Another way to look at SSTLS is to see if any new literature is showing the same picture of society and sending the same message to readers.

M Butterfly and SSTLS

M.Butterfly is a movie based on the play Madame Butterfly by Henry Hwang.  The movie explores themes including gender, ethnicity, and politics which are still controversial in today’s society. A Frenchman, Rene Gallimard falls in love with a “female” opera singer and he fails to see this love in a light of reality and finds himself in a relationship with a man, in the end of the movie Gallimard kills himself.

In the movie, gender and ethnicity issues were found through the character of the “female” Chinese opera singer. In Chinese opera, the female roles were traditionally played by males, and “Butterfly” whom was male was able to pass as a female in such a way that fooled Renee for so long says that Asian men are feminine. When Rene found out his “Butterfly” was a man he didn’t love him the way he loved Rene. Today still a homosexual relationship is looked down upon by some parts of society.

Both in SSTLS and M. Butterfly gender roles are similar.  The Asian woman is small and fragile and falls for an white male. The man is seen as the protector and provider while the women is at home.  Gender roles may be the same but they are interpreted differently.  In the movie, Song points out the when an Asian woman kills herself over her love for a white man Americans see it as beautiful and Chinese feel that this is degrading to their culture.  Song asked if a blonde cheerleader killed herself over and Asian business man was still beautiful.  It is sad but somewhat true.  

I feel that its kind of strange how a book can be set in the future and the movie set in past but still have similar connections to the same themes. Maybe history does repeat itself?

SSTLS Theme brainstorm

Gary Shteyngarts’s fictional novel, Super Sad True Love Story, contains a variety of themes and ideas depicting the “modern” American society of the future.  He writes this novel interestingly through a diary, which is an idea of the future but is considered old and boring to some parts of today’s society. The theme that I found most interesting in the novel is how social media is reshaping society and what it means to be human and social.

Almost everyone in society has an apparati, which is a device that lets you shop, view ratings of yourself and others, check stocks and completely takes your attention away for society around you. “ There they were, crowded around a table, their apparati out, speaking into their shirt collars while thumbing content into their pearly devices..(83)”. Today when you see a group of friends sitting around a table they are usually talking and laughing but in this society “hanging out” means to sit together and get updates on your friends from Global Teens and other virtual applications even though they are right next to you. When a person is actually talking it is almost a surprise to others and this event is usually recorded and streamed online. It is called “verballing in real time”, in others words talking outside his apparati.

            Everything in this society is based on first impressions and people rate you in all catagories from personality to f***ability. One of the applications is called FAC, which means form a community. “ ‘ It’s, like, a way to judge people. And let them judge you (88)”. This devices takes away from dating, talking and forming bonds through personal contact. Shtyngart also emphasizes this society’s sex appeal how it great influences their daily lives and that this is the road we are headed down. This device encourages browsing a profile to find information about them which will be the determining factor of how compatible they are. This destroys self esteem because no one will have the skills to even start up a conversation and it also takes away from really knowing a person instead of viewing them as number or a stereotype. “Check it out. This girl done got three thousand-plus images, eight hundred streams, and a long multimedia thing on how her father abused her (90)”. This device knows so much about a person and elimates any sort of privacy in this society. The apparati also knows that Lenny likes to dates girls who have a history of parental abuse implying she would be someone he would like.           

This novel shows readers what would happen if  social conduct ceased to exist in the form of conversation in person. Humans will no longer enjoy spending time with each other due to one’s social status and ratings being so important.