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Essay Two: The Unknown Vampire

Vampire lore has changed immensely from its origins in the 1700s. The monster, once used to explain seemingly supernatural events and unknown causes of death, has diverted from its beginnings and began exploring uncharted territory. Many contemporary vampires hardly exemplify the original tales of the monster. In this essay, we will be discussing the history and originations of the vampire, what the vampire could symbolize, the fears and anxieties represented by the vampire, and we will be comparing the contemporary to the original.

Vampires were a way for people in pre-industrial societies to explain and understand the phenomena associated with death, which included disease and the decomposition of the body (Barber). They have been all over the world throughout history, they were thought to be: “dead people who, having died before their time, not only refuse to remain dead but return to bring death to their friends and neighbors” (Barber). Very often in these societies, someone thought to be a vampire would be exhumed and studied.

Often, there would be religious affiliates at the exhumation of the vampire. The corpse was seen with “symptoms” of vampiric behavior which included: a corpse would have fresh blood in its mouth, the body would be bloated (which was often mistaken for being erect), and there was very slight evidence of decomposition. After the body was exhumed the vampire would be killed, its heart ripped out and burned, to assure it would not hurt anyone else.

Not that we have a brief history of the vampire, we can begin to understand what the vampire represents. Vampires are myths told in times of hardships, including times of disease, death, or in the case of illegitimate offspring. There were many theories to how a vampire was created, some believed you had to be bitten, while others believed that an illegitimate child or a child born with deformities would become a vampire. Although vampires can represent times of hardship, they especially represent times of disease, specifically Pellegra.

In 1735 Pellegra, a dietary deficiency of niacin and tryptophan, which was a lingering disease that was thought to have a supernatural cause (Hampl & Hampl). Pellegra can be identified by four symptoms, which can be obviously recognized as origins of the vampire myth. The first was dermatitis, which results in a sensitivity to sunlight, a known trait of the original vampires was that they hunted at night, sleeping during the day to avoid the sunlight. During this phase the skin becomes scaly and paper thin, much like how a corpse would look. This fueled the idea that vampires were the walking dead.

The second was dementia, which causes insomnia, anxiety, aggression, and depression. Early vampires tales often show the vampires sulking, awake for hours after dusk, with aggressive personalities made for killing. Next would be diarrhea, and although the vampire cannot fully relate to this, we can see how they represent this phase. Vampires are very skinny; they look like they have not eaten for a long time. They also have a disgust for food, which is very often a symptom of Pellgra. Lastly, death. The vampire was thought to be an undead creature who was stemmed from communities that had many unexplainable deaths (Hampl & Hampl).

More compelling evidence that the vampire myth originated out of this once deadly disease is that vampire attacks during this time were not always killings. Often, towns that were plagued by the presence of vampires would be repeatedly attacked, like a disease that kills slowly, much like Pellegra. Much of the time these repeated attacks would occur before spring, right before the crops were ready for harvest. We know now that Pellegra comes from corn, so having these attacks come just before the corn was ready for harvest seems like a good symbolization for the myth of the vampire.

Now that we know what the vampire represents, which is disease and other times of unexplainable death in pre-industrial societies, it’s time to look at the anxieties that are revealed by the concept of the vampire. There are many anxieties throughout history that would be later explained by the haunting of a vampire. Because the vampire is often seen in the gothic realm, we must take a close look at what the gothic represents to understand the fears and anxieties that lead to the creation of the vampire. The gothic blurs the boundaries between the Heimlich and the unheimlich. It is concerned with the hidden operations and the subjection of the person, the aspect of the psyche that disturbs the social order (Battista).

The vampire is seen as a threat to the societal norms and hierarchies, which is what it craves to overpower: “Culture can become threatened by the secrets it holds. Cultures own most cherished features can be used to defy its dictates” (Haggerty). The power of the vampire masters the power of humans, it shows up as it pleases and cannot be found until daylight when it returns to the grave. Many monsters come from a fear of the unknown, and the vampire is no different: “The vampire lore proves to be an elaborate folk-hypotheses designed to account for seemingly inexplicable events associated with death and decomposition” (Barber). Here we see not only a threat of power but also a threat of death and disease. Things that could not be understood during the time, like the way a body decomposes or why people were seemingly dying inexplicably would be understood through the myth of vampires.

But these are not the only anxieties that allow the creation of vampires. Anne Rice designed a completely new type of vampire, one based on human sexuality. As stated, for centuries humans have been explaining the unknown with new types of monsters. Anne Rice created a sexualized vampire, that was of free will and open in their sexuality, to express a new societal anxiety that was previously undenounced. Rice created a vampire using the imagery of gay life which assumed that vampires have a naturalized homoerotic origin. In this way, Rice’s vampires would express not only a desire for, but also a fear of the gay man (Haggerty). There is the idea that, “the homosexual is a symptom for this cultural situation because he reflects cultures deepest desires and therefore bear the burnt of its systematic hatred in the form of homophobia” (Haggerty). In this way the vampire is not just a fear of the unknown, but also a fear of disease, death, and in Anne Rice’s stories, homosexuality.

Lastly, we will be comparing and contrasting the historical vampire with the contemporary vampire, seeing how true the contemporary stays to the original. Historically the vampire was not the sexualized being that modern culture knows and loves. They were not sexual creatures that struggled to hurt a human, “often people who ‘became’ vampires were difficult, contentious people while alive” (Barber).

The vampire has substantially changed from its origins in the 1700s. The vampire started out as an undead being whose stench would repulse anyone nearby. The idea that vampires smelled terrible stemmed directly from the plague, as many lingering diseases at the time were thought to have a supernatural cause (Barber). However, this idea has changed immensely, looking at one of the most popular vampire series Twilight, we see that Stephenie Meyer’s vampires are beautiful and sexy, meant to draw humans in. At one point they dive into this new idea, stating that even the smell of these modern vampires is meant to bring humans to them, which goes directly against the origin of the vampire.

The sexual nature of the vampire, while nothing new, is a problematic stereotype because it does not stay true to the origin of the myth. Although there are many problematic stigmas we can see develop and retreat throughout the years. One of the many derivations from the origin of the vampire is that they can turn into a bat. Although the readings were primarily historical analyses and they did not touch on the contemporary vampire, the idea of turning into a flying creature is an interesting thought. Potentially, it could stem from the idea that deformed children were more likely to turn into a vampire than someone born healthy and into a legitimate family (Barber). The shapeshifting could symbolize deformation of the body, which connects to the origin of the myth.

Another myth of the vampire is the mass killings they induce, particularly in vampire films created after 2005. They cause chaos and mass destruction, leaving only death behind. Whereas the original vampire did not mercilessly kill but would attack slowly. The slow and grueling attack is some of the best evidence that the vampire stemmed from disease. Disease was misunderstood, so these communities used tales to explain these seemingly supernatural events (Hampl & Hampl). The modern vampire is not a slow attack, but a mass one. A few contemporary vampires have more power than hundreds of humans. Diverting farther and farther from the origins of the myth.

Overall, the vampire myths origins have been nearly forgotten. Although the idea of vampires originated in communities where death and decomposition were misunderstood, the modern vampire has completely disregarded these origins. Nowadays the vampire has taken on the twist of romance and sexuality. Vampires are no longer people who had unfinished business during their untimely death, so they have risen to terrorize their friends and families. That role has been taken on by ghosts and poltergeists. Instead, famous authors and Hollywood directors have changed the vampire into a sexual being who holds a lot of power but is at odds with themselves. They overpower any human but are now interested by them. Vampires now have a sense of control but not long ago they were portrayed as ravenous creatures who would kill off an entire city in one night. The myths and legends that surround vampires are far more interesting than the contemporary monster they have become.

Works Cited:

Barber, Paul. Vampires, Burial, and Death. United States of America, Yale University, 1988.

Battista, Christine. 1 Apr. 2019. Lecture.

Haggerty, George E. “Anne Rice and the Queering of Culture.” Novel: A Forum on Fiction. Duke

University Press, Vol. 32, 1998.

Hampl, Jeffery & Hampl, William. “Pellegra and the Origin of the Myth: Evidence from European

Literature and Folklore.” Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. Vol. 90, November 1997.

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Blog Post 5: The Myth of the Werewolf

The history of the werewolf is rooted in the Enlightenment. Although many history courses teach us that the Enlightenment was a time of great scientific discovery and the beginning of the modern world, that is not the full story. The Enlightenment also paved the way for the formation of stories and myths of the monstrous, which were based in 17th and 18th century reality. Science and religion battled to find the truth and many scientists were making great strides in creating hybrid animals and coming up with theories about deformation. Many religious people believed that scientists were playing God, for he did not invent such hybrids in the natural world. This would eventually lead to the lore of the werewolf.

There becomes this fear of something that is other than Christianity. In the film “The Wolf Man” there is a a priest who refuses a pagan ritual because of the fear they would upset the one true “God.” There was a widespread belief that God was creating and releasing these creatures, and they would only affect people who had sinned. However, in the movie, the werewolf is known to infect not only sinners, but even the innocent, those who went to church and said their prayers could even become a wolf. The film however does associate the werewolf with the gypsy, who is pagan, so the wolf is therefore associated with something that opposes Christianity.

There were many fears and anxieties that resulted from such hybrids and nonreligious sciences. The very idea that unknown creatures were being found stirred anxieties in people. This fear of the unknown, or better yet, the unknown animalistic behavior we have inside ourselves, caused panic and terror of these creatures. Humans have this general fear of letting the id take over, the most basic survival instincts of oneself. The id does not have regard for society, but only the body in which it inhabits. There becomes a genuine fear for becoming or seeing something that is unrecognizable in proper society.

The fear of ones shadow self plays an important role in this film as well. The shadow self, described by Carl Jung, is composed of repressed ideas, weaknesses, instincts, and short comings. There are things hidden here that are unacceptable to society and often personal morals. However, the shadow self exists in all of us, though it is prominent in terms of the werewolf. This creates a fear of one’s shadow self, it’s something we cannot escape from. The wolf symbolizes the shadow self escaping from the inner corners of one’s psyche and being released into the real world. A mind that has been completely taken over by some repressed thing, that has changed the way this once societal appropriate human acts and thinks.

There is especially emphasis on this in terms of religious beliefs. The shadow self is released by something ungodly. By the act of defying god or religious beliefs, the shadow self comes out of hiding, and terrorizes the person it belongs to. The werewolf who awakens does not remember the night before, showing a lack of engagement with the unconscious thoughts a person has.

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Blog Post 4: The Root of the Zombie

The root of the zombie and the process of zombification is both complicated and fascinating. The western zombie could be seen as one of the most obvious form of cultural appropriation. When Haiti was the center of the slave trade many different tribes from Africa were being forced together. Forced to find some common ground with the strangers surrounding them: “Vodou resulted from an amalgam of beliefs and traditions of a people who were once forced to accept a colonial region of oppression while they struggled to retain some sense of African identity and culture” (Moreman & Rushton). Vodou was a threat to the American society, the Haitian culture was something never before seen, a true fear of the unknown. In “Putting the Undead to Work” David Inglis says, “white mans negative depictions of the country as a feverish inferno of the Voodoo-induced depravity were very much stimulated by racist fears over what was, in the nineteenth century, the worlds first ‘black republic’” (Inglis). So not only was there a fear of the race of the people, but also a fear of disease and religion. There was a widespread belief in the U.S. that AIDS originated in Haiti and that its generation was somehow connected to Vodou rituals. The Haitian zombie, although connected to Vodou, is not a cannibalistic maniac but rather a mindless undead person who is stripped of all free will and controlled by a master. There was a genuine fear of the unknown, zombies were originally one of three things: 1. Could be a soul stolen from a living person by a magician 2. Could be a dead person who had willingly given their body to the Vodou gods 3. Or a zombie could be a reanimated, mindless, soulless corpse taken from its grave to serve the master who awakened it (Kordas). In this way, zombies in film became a mindless creature who worked for white men, a type of slave, just another African person who was forced into America by their white masters. The white man’s fears of the slave overthrowing his power was the suppressed fears and anxieties of the slaves revolting against authority. Because Haiti was proof that an all black society could be achieved and successful, the white mans fear only grew. The zombie therefore, at least in western culture, represents fears of the unknown, the overthrow of authority, the fear of disease, or an unknown religion. The Haitian zombie brought a new wave of previously unknown anxieties. Haiti introduced a completely new culture to the American society, but because of fears, the unknown became the threat that we needed to defend against.

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Occult Presentation

I did the history of Tarot and the Contemporary examples. I spoke about how Tarot has a very complicated history that is difficult to trace back to one specific origin. I also spoke about the Major and Minor Arcana, and how they differ not only in suit but also in meaning. As the Major Arcana has no suits and is only numbers 0-21, they were the original cards used to play Triumph in 1440. The Minor Arcana are split up into four suits, they are not numbered but there are fourteen cards per suit. The four suits are cups, pentacles, wands, and swords, which all pertain to a specific section in one’s life. Tarot cards are also often misinterpreted, as they are thought to be randomly selected cards with general meanings. However, each card will be interpreted by individuals differently, even the card reader and the person being read could have different interpretations of the same card. Now this doesn’t mean one is right over the other, reading Tarot has a lot to do with how the person feels about the card. When being read you have to open yourself up to the possibility that the card knows more about your life than you do. You must be willing to talk about things you’d rather keep hidden, because that’s what the cards will aim for. I would love to know how people react to Tarot, what were their original interpretations versus how they feel now?

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Blog Post Three: Vampires in Contemporary Culture

Queen of the Damned does a great job combining the traditional with the contemporary vampire. The film also provides great context for what the gothic represents. As the gothic craves to expose the hidden operations and the subjection of a person, the film exposes hidden hierarchal power. The bourgeoise power is held by Lestant and his master, he is seen as the powerful white man that is threatened to be overthrown. His maker teaches him that power comes from fear, the oldest and most feared vampire holds the most power, which must never be known by the mortal humans. Lestant threatens this reign of power by revealing himself to the human species, reassuring the existence of all vampires. When the goddess rises, she takes over the power of Lestant and asks him to be her king, to lead with her. In this way, she still conforms to the social standard and exposes hidden operations. She is a minority in power, which is threatening to the American society, as this culture has been run by older white men since the beginning of American civilization. Yet she needs a white man beside her to confirm that she is powerful, to show the world that she is as dangerous as she claims to be. In the end, she will die at the hands of white vampires, showing her minority status and how it cannot compete with those already in power. This power can be interpreted in different ways, especially if we look at the goddess Akasha. She represents a free sexuality in women, something that can also be threatening to the male hierarchy. Women, though not directly said, are interpreted to be caretakers, to have a want for children, they are repressed from their sexual desires because sex should only lead to a family unit. The goddess pushes these norms, as she is not only physically the most powerful, but she is the most sexual as well. Contemporary vampires are well known for their lustful personalities, throughout the whole film we see examples of this. The sexual nature of Lestant makes girls swoon for him, so that he may lead them in and kill them. The goddess is no different, she represents female sexuality that has been shut down and repressed by those in power. The symbolic nature of her death allows the viewer to understand how she is oppressed by the white male figure, as she is killed by many white vampires, including Lestant, who the film portrays as one of the most powerful figures.

We also notice a blurred boundary of the heimlich and the unheimlich, as Lestant appears human in his physical form, but his persona and actions let the audience know he is something to be feared, something that is other than human. Not only this, but it allows us to compare the contemporary vampire to the traditional. The film stays true to some traditional narratives revolving around vampires, including the idea that they live in darkness and shadows. However, there are some contemporary liberties they take with this film, such as the vampire becoming sexualized, the idea they are cold to the touch, and they were perfectly intact. In the article “Vampires, Burial, and Death” Paul Barber writes about how corpses thought to be vampires would have little deformation, but still some, especially in the facial area. Take this quote as an example, “The corpse has lain in the grave now into the eighth month… In the open grave they found the body complete and undamaged by decay, but blown up like a drum, except that nothing was changed and the limbs all still hung together.” Barber talks about no decay on this particular corpse but a bloated body. None of the vampires in this film were bloated, or had any signs of decay like many of the other corpses Barber mentions. The vampires in Queen of the Damned are all sexualized beings made strictly for entertainment purposes.

Works Cited:

Battista, Christine. Lecture. Apr. 1, 2019.

Barber, Paul. “Vampires, Burial, and Death.” United States of America, Yale University, 2010.

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Essay One: Option Two How Cultural Anxieties in the 1930s Influenced “Freaks”

Horror in the 1930s was less about terrifying the audience with gruesome images and more about reflecting the cultural anxieties held by American society. As well as creating some of the main archetypes of horror and inventing new dreadful monsters, the horror film of the 30s wanted to release repressed fears and concerns of their American audience. In the early thirties, the doubts that haunted America became very real: The Great Depression struck, worsening daily, and prohibition was enacted causing thousands of Americans to turn to criminal activity. The surreal horror presented these issues in an unrealistic (monsters, ghouls, ghosts, etc.) way with a very real theme or plotline.

The film “Sideshow: Freaks” is a great example of 1930s horror. Presenting repressed emotions represented by freaks in a circus act, the film hits on some of the most prominent underlying fears held by Americans. One of the biggest crises Americans faced was the Great Depression, the rich were still successful, but the lower and middle classes often found themselves struggling. In “Sideshow: Freaks” we see the main character Hans is very wealthy, though he has a deformity which makes him the center of several punchlines. He falls in love with an acrobat named Cleopatra, Cleo is in love with Hercules, the strong man of the show. The two lovers concoct a devilish plan, to make Hans believe Cleo is in love with him, then kill him and inherit his money.

The underlying fear of this plotline is fairly obvious. There is not enough money to be had by all classes, so Cleo, thinking she is better than Hans because she does not have a deformity, comes up with the elaborate scheme so that she may be rich, as she believes she rightfully deserves. Cleo, Hercules, and their friends see themselves as better than these “freaks” performing in the circus. In this way the low class believes they deserve what the high class has. Hans, though he is often ridiculed, has a lot of money and showers Cleo in gifts. In a way Hans loses his identity at the end of the film when Cleo’s plot is revealed, the article “Dread and Circuses” explains identity as “the thing that is left behind when you take everything else away” (Leroux). Although Hans does not lose everything, he feels as if he does, which turns him bitter and he wishes to be alone in his house for the rest of his life.

The film also speaks of the greediness of the Great Depression, how everyone wanted what they couldn’t have, and how some people even took drastic measures to gain some sort of profit. It reflects the hardships people living in the 30s had to undergo. In this way we could even argue during this scene the film is hinting at prohibition, as some ordinary law-abiding citizens turned to criminal activity to distribute or consume alcohol. Cleo is taking drastic measures to gain a profit, so she turns to a criminal scheme in order to get her share.

Showing his wealth but being easily fooled is what allows this story to unfold. Hans does not want what Cleo has, instead he wants to share his life and wealth with her. Cleo, being selfish and wanting the profit for herself, plans to murder him in order to get what she wants. In this way, Hans stands for the danger of having money during the Great Depression. If you had money, everyone wanted it.

Another fear the film reveals is the fear of reproduction. During the Great Depression, having a child could significantly financially damage your family or lifestyle. The want is a stable economy, the fear is not having it. These “freaks” are presented as a deformation that comes from normal coupling, so in this way the film is warning against reproduction in times of such hardships: “Few, if any, have to be warned against meddling with the private life of circus freaks. Having enough difficulty with persons of normal characteristics – and a few subnormals, as I often think of them myself – I didn’t need Freaks to remind me of the hazards of such a dalliance” (Skal). The freaks stand for the wasted money one would spend on a child, they also stand for everything that could go wrong.

Along with this, we have the repressed fear of being attacked by the unknown. At this time, many soldiers were coming home from World War One and had been deformed by new weaponry that was previously unknown. Because many people were not actually in the war, they had no idea the caliber of these weapons and what they could do to a person’s body, mind, and soul. The average American citizen only got to see the aftermath of what happened to a deformed soldier, not what had caused the deformation in the first place. In this way, these freaks became a metaphor for fear of the unknown. Americans were afraid of being attacked by something they did not understand, freaks stood for the unknown warfare the average citizen had not experienced: “it was very, very difficult [the] first time. Because I couldn’t look at them… it hurt me like a human being” (Skal). Freaks were new, frightening, deformed, just like new warfare which was horrifying and caused deformation.

These creatures and monsters were so popular because they were able to reflect different cultural anxieties in a visual way. The repressed fears were released through new elements of the horror genre. Although they were meant to frighten their audience, they also served to release these repressed fears through cinematography.

Works Cited:

Leroux, Gaston. “Dread and Circuses.” 1911.

Skal, J., David. “1931: The American Abyss.” n.d.

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Blog Post Two: Amityville Horror

The film “Amityville Horror” shows many repressed fears and emotions of society during the 1970s. Many haunted spaces are based on these fears, while horror films use these repressed emotions to trigger American audiences, presenting them as a monster of sorts. We can connect this film to “Dreading White Picket Fences: Domesticity and the Suburban Horror Film” because suburbia is supposed to bring the family together. This house is supposed to provide a safe space for the couple and their children but instead it becomes a deadly situation. The home is supposed to be homely, to be a comfortable place, instead it becomes an uncomfortable and dangerous place to be. In this way, the house threatens the idea of the nuclear family, the American Dream. The home should bring unity to the family but it pushes them farther apart. The film focuses on the uncanny, the home becomes unhomely. The flies we see so often during this film represent an uncleanliness of the home, an evil presence living inside. The home represents the American Dream, but their home belongs to something other than the family. During the 1970s we see a lot of people move away from the idea of the nuclear family, giving way to the second wave of feminism. Women were tired of living in a suburban household, expected to look after and unify their family. In the first few scenes we find out that the wife was either married before George or had children out of wedlock. For her three children have become George’s step children. The children of the 70s were raised by 50s housewives who wanted their children to grow up to become like them. In the 60s there was significant retaliation to this idea of the nuclear family, and in the 70s it only continued, became more normal for people to live together and have children together without being married. However, this film still holds some of the traditional gender roles. Such as how the wife is portrayed as a weaker and more submissive being than her husband. We see this when the wife is in charge of bringing in the groceries while George is chopping wood, when she takes care of her daughter after she has a nightmare, and again when she wants her sister to stay in the house and is begging her to stay, but ultimately turns to George to make her stay. In this way the film works off of the repressed fears of a non-nuclear society, but it still implements many social gender standards.

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Blog Post One: Why We Crave Horror

Stephen King claims we crave horror for a few reasons. We want to dare the nightmare, we want to show that we can view the film, that we are not afraid. We want to re-establish our feelings of essential normality. And we want to have fun, the horror film has become a place to release repressed emotions. Horror films are a place to discuss the shadows of our psyche by implementing very real topics and alluding them with a monster or ghost. We take real world problems and cover them up so that our fear cannot be truly recognized. One of the most recent examples I can think of is the film “Get Out.” This film covers some of the very real problems America has been facing after the election of Trump. The fear of racism, neglect, and misunderstanding shine bright through this film. Society fears that Trump will create a racist society, as more racist groups are gaining more members and posting more frequently. This film portrayed a true topic of discussion, then played on our fear. Another film that does this are horror films that are “based on true events.” I think as humans we genuinely have a fear of the idea of ghosts and hauntings. So in films like “The Conjuring” when the director puts the phrase “based on a true story” it makes everyone’s stomach turn just a little bit. The last film I want to bring up is “The Ring.” In this film the story highlights the neglect of a mentally ill little girl. Which shows societies misunderstanding of mental illness, how it can be viewed as scary when it’s really not terrifying at all. In this case, the fear of you or someone you know being mentally ill plays in the film, but the little girl is neglected. When she is thrown down a well and murdered is when she comes back to haunt you. She doesn’t want people to forget her, or to classify her based on her illness. Which is the reason you have to make a copy of the tape so you won’t die, she wants her voice to be heard. If the tape is copied, more people know about the situation and the neglect this girl went through. In this case, it shows how we should talk about mental illness and try to understand it as best we can.

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The Myrtles Plantation

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Susan Sontag

Writing is a way of understanding the world, a way to record reality.

Visuals have a way of connecting with people in a way that words alone cannot. Susan Sontag was famous for both her writing and her amazing ability to state her mind, even if it went against her own culture. She looked at everything through a disparate lens, or an outsiders perspective. In the documentary, the first article they brought to mention was soon after the attack on 9/11. She was called unpatriotic, and thoroughly criticized, because she questioned the attack itself. Could it be America self-proclaiming itself as a superpower that threatens other countries and was the basis of the attack on the Twin Towers? She wondered if some piece of it was the fault of America.

Susan Sontag did not start out differently than most American women, in fact she lost herself in what society dreams to be the perfect life for a woman. She married and gave birth to a child at the age of nineteen. But she wanted more out of her life, she left her child with her husband, an unthinkable, an almost taboo in American society, a child being left with a man to care for him. She had the normal, and she was uncomfortable being normal. She was different in the ways she fought against the norms of womanhood, she was constantly remaking herself.

Sontag wasn’t outrageously different, but she made herself so by removing herself from standard American society. She wanted to combine fiction and philosophical in her writing, an almost impossible combination. She grew up in a Jewish family, and although she did not label herself by her Jewish heritage it allowed her to look at America through a different lens. She also was a homosexual, which is another minority in American society, giving her another way to look at American society through an outsiders perspective. She did not confine herself by labeling her sexuality of her heritage, she did not consider herself normal, nor did she want to be normal.

Being Jewish is not her label, she wanted to be known for her accomplishments, she claims that because of her religious heritage, she feels obligated to stand up for the oppressed. She went against the idea that America is doing everything right. We pretend to be the most powerful dominating country, and she called Americans out for that.

The way that Sontag most often wrote in an outsider’s opinion is by going into different cultures and learned the ways of life in those areas. She would travel to different countries just to learn about the lifestyle and be able to write and interpret art in different ways. Susan Sontag was a feminist, but she also questioned why women allowed certain things to happen, why didn’t they speak up for themselves.

Interprets are used as a way to diminish the world around us, and capitalism hides underlying meanings in order for the viewers to interpret the images in ways that are beneficial for the society. Art should allow the audience to make interpretations positive and create a longing and desire in the viewers. Photographs capture fleeting moments in time, which is why they are able expose underlying messages.

She then moved into the visual world of cinema, and was heavily criticized for not making the film relate-able enough to a wide audience. She liked photographs because we want them to tell us a truth, but we also want them to lie, to make ourselves look better than we really appear. She claimed most images consume the public space for thinking. There are too many horrible photographs, there needs to be less so we become less accustomed to them. Photographs inflict feelings on the viewer, which is why there needs to be less photographs that are so shocking. She claimed that photographs cannot bring justice to the shocking events of the world all the time, such as war.

Susan Sontag believed that in order to be a writer, you had to be interested in everything, and be willing to look at the world in a different way, in order to write from an outsiders opinion. She wanted to highlight the under-spoken, to put a spotlight on the oppressed. The writer was supposed to stand for something, she thought some people could accomplish revolution through art. Certain forms of popular culture should be exploited, and prefers truth from art rather than the universal truth of the Capitalist society.

Most of her work was not well-received by the general audience. She always had a longing to do more, she was afraid to become a part of the past. Susan Sontag’s work revealed the politics of the visual through her disparate lens by separating herself from most populations. She would live and learn in other cultures in order to escape anything remotely normal. She wanted to be abnormal so that she could question society through an outsiders perspective. She wasn’t so much removed from other cultures, but so involved in cultures that she became an outsider to all of them.

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Final for Battista: The Film Industry

For this essay I decided to conduct research on the Film Industry, and decide how this industry can be beneficial and harmful to American society. We will also touch on issues of diversity within the industry, and the ways in which the ideas of the dominant class are being pushed on an audience through the art of film.

The largest production firms that produce movies are: Metro Goldwyn-Mayer, 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks Pictures, Walt Disney Studios, Sony Pictures, Lionsgate, Warner Bros, Universal Pictures, & The Weinstein Company. However, these ten big names can be condensed to six big media conglomerates who own practically all media. We call these the “Big 6” or “The Majors” and they are: National Amusements, Disney, Time Warner, Comcast, News Corp, and Sony. To break it down even farther, the chart below can give you a sense of exactly which production companies are owned by what conglomerate.

[Click here for Corporate Media Chart]

Something to notice is that all of these conglomerates besides Sony is owned by an older white man, which can be very influential over the industry. Unfortunately, in general the film industry faces a lot of problem when these corporate owners influence create bias in the films they produce. I consider this to be a problem because it very well could be one of the reason the film industry is facing so many problems with whitewashing, gender stereotypes, racial stereotypes, and sexual misconduct.

The film industry is constantly changing and evolving, so recent trends are pretty simple to follow. The Film Industry Network created a list of the trends from 2018, which included: 1. The devaluation of film as a product 2. Film franchise fatigue 3. Lack of government grants for short films 4. Tax breaks that don’t help smaller film productions 5. Runaway digital piracy affecting filmmaker products 6. Lack of access to content in different markets 7. Long working hours and pay issues 8. Film crew not knowing their legal rights.

http://filmindustrynetwork.biz/8-gigantic-problems-film-industry-fixed/26044

I think this list is a good example of some of the trends the 2018 film market was facing. The list also gave the audience a feeling of unauthentic content being produced and distributed from Hollywood. Some films that were produced had some serious problems, and once these hidden issues arose and were on the front page of other media outlets, the audience began to notice the frightening true ways of the industry. The reason for this sudden change is because people began to realize with the help of counter movements that the film industry had been running in the same way for over a century, and something needed to be done.

There have been so many controversies in the film industry it becomes difficult to keep track. However, one of the biggest and most recent trend was the case around Harvey Weinstein. As many know, Harvey Weinstein was accused and convicted on multiple accounts of sexual assault. He would hold meetings with female client, whether they be upcoming actresses, directors, writers, or producers, and would call them up to his room instead of the hotel lobby. He would then ask for sexual favors or massages, knowing full well that his influence in Hollywood would allow him to make or break their careers. Many of the girls complied, while some did not. This would lead to a countercultural movement that will be brought up in depth later, called #MeToo. The reason this controversy is so important is because it drastically changed how many people viewed the film industry. Many started to realize the influence a white male has over the industry, and just how powerful he can be perceived as.

Another major controversy in the industry is the constant whitewashing and discrimination throughout the history of film. One of the most recent examples is Ghost in a Shell, a live-action remake of a popular anime. The directors cast Scarlett Johansson, a popular white actress, to play the main character who is supposed to be Asian. The producers even edited Johansson’s features to appear more Asian. This was extremely problematic for an audience because they were expecting an Asian actress to add to the authenticity of the film. But directors and producers are convinced that white people sell movies, so they cast Johansson instead.

They also face controversies over gender stereotypes, in film a lot of women are seen to be accommodating to the needs of a man, something theorists call the “Male Gaze.” Many women are film are slim, attractive ladies who are often over-sexualized and appear to always be looking for the approval of a man. Take for example the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit where Jessica Rabbit (a cartoon) is seen with large breasts and can appeal to the needs of any man. During her first scene, all the men in the bar are seen gawking over her “beauty.” We can even see this throughout children’s films, where princesses are constantly rescued by a man, because they can’t seem to help themselves (i.e. Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Tangled, Moana, etc.). This is problematic to the industry because they are basically telling females that they need the approval and help of a man in order to survive.

Now we’ll move on to some history of the film industry. In 1877 British American inventor Eadweard Muybridge would create the first real motion picture by setting up a series of twelve cameras along a horse track. These cameras would take several pictures as the horse ran by, Muybridge would then place the images on a rotating disk, and project it onto a screen, when projected you could watch the horse run down the track. The first short films would be created by Louis Le Prince in the late 1880s. However, credit for short film invention was given to an American inventor William Kennedy Laurie Dickson.

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With the invention of the phonograph by Thomas Edison and the invention of short film, Dickson was able to bring the inventions together to create the Kinetograph. The Kinetoscope would also be created by Dickson, which would allow someone to view a short film through a large peeping device, which would be the first real way for the public to view film, for a small price. The first real film that would be internationally distributed would be created in 1902, titled Le Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon). And an industry would be formed, in 1903 the industry would experience the first enormous box office success with the production of the film The Great Train Robbery. Theaters began popping up all around America in 1903, and they couldn’t build them fast enough. By 1908, about 20 different motion picture firms had developed around America.

https://www.britannica.com/art/history-of-the-motion-picture

Motion picture was an industry that developed quite quickly, I would say that from the industry’s beginning they have stayed quite true to their roots, film was always a product that was used to make money, when the Kinetoscope was invented producers would charge the public $0.25 to view a short film. However, the corporatization of the industry has affected the quality of film production. Production companies have started to push more and more films to make more money. However, I would say this has helped the industry flourish, because the amount of films being produced can appeal to a wider audience, making the industry more money. Although I will say that some of the creativity from the film industry has been compromised because the movies being distributed are being produced so fast that a lot of them are very similar, in fact even the TV industry has started to take popular movies and turn them into television shows, such as the television show Bates Motel is based off the popular film by Alfred Hitchcock, Psycho. It’s not just the television industry, we see similar movies being produced as well, in fact an article published by Rudie Obias gives a list of 25 movies with similar plots that were released in the same year.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/54768/25-movies-similar-plots-released-same-year

When talking about the film industry we also must talk about key figures. Some notable artists and pioneers in the film industry include Laurie Dickson, who invented the Kinetoscope. Orson Welles a director, screenwriter, producer, and actor, who would direct several extremely influential films, including Citizen Kane. Alfred Hitchcock and Walt Disney, while both somewhat problematic, were also very influential in the film industry. Walt Disney would create the first successful full animation film, the first movie that would be directed at children (aka: Snow White and the Seven Dwarves). And Alfred Hitchcock would create many films, including Vertigo and Psycho, his movies are still being celebrated and recreated today especially in popular television. George Lucas is another big name in the industry, he made science fiction popular with the creation of Star Wars, which would become some of the most popular films of all time. He brought a new audience into film.

There have been so many influential characters throughout the film industry it’s impossible to highlight them all. However, I’ve chosen to highlight these people because they all brought a new way of thinking into the industry. Each time one of these directors or producers produced their works, it would change the industry forever. With Walt Disney creating the first animated film, he tailored to a new audience. When Alfred Hitchcock created Vertigo it brought a new way of creating films, they became more psychological and creative. George Lucas made sci-fi films more acceptable and likeable by a wide audience, instead of science fiction being for “nerds” it became mainstream to want to be a Jedi.

Now something important to thing about is the counter-cultural movements surrounding the industry. You can’t talk about counter-cultural movements in the film industry without talking about the #metoo movement. This movement was created by Tarana Burke began in 2006, for victims of sexual assault. However, the film industry popularized the movement when popular producer Harvey Weinstein was outed for multiple accounts of sexual assault, because of Alyssa Milano and Rose McGowan’s use of the hashtag.

https://www.instyle.com/news/who-started-me-too-movement

This movement has sparked some change in the industry, more and more famous directors and producers are being charged for sexual misconduct. So these people have been removed from the industry and stripped of their power. For example, Bill Cosby is in jail, Kevin Spacey has been removed from House of Cards and Harvey Weinstein is no longer relevant in the film industry. However, we are not seeing more women getting involved in the industry, and we have not seen a change from the way women are portrayed throughout film. We’re also learning that some of these changes are not permanent, for example Louis CK is back to performing stand-up comedy after being investigated and found guilty on charges of sexual assault. But we do see more women in the film industry gaining confidence and understanding they do not need a man to get them into a higher position, they are starting to believe in themselves and their capabilities. If anything, the #metoo movement has showed women they are not alone and has proven that we are strong and independent. We’re also starting to see many celebrities wearing a “Time’s Up” pin, showing their support for the movement at the 2018 Golden Globes. Kate Muir made an excellent point when she stated, “Part of Time’s Up is the harassment and the bullying, but another is diversity, women’s roles, equality. Both parts are as important as one another, because the equality and diversity will bring sanity, one hopes.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/08/metoo-one-year-on-hollywood-reaction

This is an excellent point because it proves the movement isn’t about getting rid of these men because they’re in a position of power, but rather that the people that support this movement are fighting for equality for all.

Five of the six major film industries that control practically all distribution and production of films are owned and run by white men, which creates a lack of diversity in the production of film. The only corporation that is not owned by a white male is Sony, which is owned by an Asian male. None of these corporations are owned by females, and there are very few females within the industry that have any sort of power. Sarah Gavron, a female director, speaking about the film industry stated: “’Gosh there’s a voice behind that film.’ It was an epiphany. But then I thought: ‘They’re all men’” (Day, Hoggard, & Bromwich). This is a really powerful quote because it’s coming from a woman who actually works in the industry, and even she can see the male dominance. She went on to say, “We’ve got to do all we can to break this ridiculous pattern where year in, year out, nothing changed. We’re 51% of the world, we buy more than half the cinema tickets, we need these stories to be reflected. There are so few Oscar-nominated films with female protagonists – it’s astounding what a boys’ club it is” (Day, Hoggard, & Bromwich).

The owners of these corporations are reflected in films because you can clearly see the male gaze within many movies. Even some of the most well-renowned directors and producers make the same mistake, such as Alfred Hitchcock and Walt Disney. Disney produces movies that teach children from a very young age that women are fragile and in need of the protection from a man. And Hitchcock tells adults the very same thing, but on a deeper level. He portrays women as unintelligent, people who can’t think for themselves, people who need a man to call the shots.

There have been many films that have tried to break the demographic stereotype of the industry, but even these films can be problematic. For example, Crazy Rich Asians is supposed to be a film supporting an all Asian cast, which is diversity right? However, the way they portray these Asian characters is a stereotype within itself. They are all smart, rich, and well dressed. Industry producers don’t consider culture or heritage, but how they can make a movie appeal to a wide audience, and unfortunately the only way they know how is to whitewash characters. Even with a full Asian cast, they must act a certain way, act more white than they actually would in a real life scenario, because distribution companies believes this is what sells tickets. However, we have also seen movies like Hidden Figures that actually did push the norm of what a movie had to be in order to sell tickets. A cast of three intelligent black women who worked with NASA on an important space project. But even then, many changes are not being implemented in the industry, and we can see that through the industry’s ownership and lack of diversity.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/sep/27/sexism-film-industry-stories

There’s a few key terms from chapter twelve of our book that I would like to highlight in this essay, mostly because they are terms one needs to understand in order to fully understand the film industry. First, we have to discuss The Majors defined as “the six most powerful companies in Hollywood because of their distribution power.” We have identified these companies as National Amusements, Disney, Time Warner, Comcast, News Corp, and Sony. Another term we should highlight is Film Production Firms which we have discussed in depth, defined as “companies involved in coming up with story ideas, finding scriptwriters, hiring the personnel needed to make the movie, and making sure the work is carried out on time and on budget.” These production firms are those companies who actually make the film, and then they will hand them off to Film Distribution Firms. We have also talked about these quite frequently throughout the paper, these are defined as: “companies responsible for finding theaters in which to show the movies around the world and for promoting the films to the public.” These are the people that work with advertising agencies to get the film promoted, they also find out where these films will be released and when. Guilds is another important term for us to know, “unions established by writers, directors, actors, and other crew members to protect their mutual interests and maintain standards” these are basically the protectors of the film industry. Along with this term we need to know the key term Distribution Rights, “the rights to circulate a particular movie in different parts of the world.” These are also protection rights for distribution firms, so that even if a movie goes international the proceeds still go to the right company. These will protect against Film Piracy which is defined as “the unauthorized duplication of copyrighted films for a profit” so if someone records a movie and then sells it themselves, they would be considered a “film pirate.”

For the exemplary portion of this essay I would like to highlight films that have been credited to be counter-cultural or that have pushed the norms of the film industry. Starting with the film Hidden Figures. The book was a New York Times #1 Best Seller, and from there it was made into a movie. Based on a true story, this movie follows the lives of three black women, working at Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, where they were helping NASA aeronautics, space research, and computer technology. This movie pushed the norms of the industry because usually women are placed as side roles to a man, who becomes the hero. This story is about three independent, intelligent black women (two minorities in the industry) who solve problems for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Throughout the movie the women are constantly discriminated against for simply being women, the men make jokes that they are not educated enough to be helping out NASA with such an influential problem. But they prove every white male wrong in the movie by being successful in the end. I chose this film because usually women are discriminated against in films just not as blatantly. This film took the norms of the industry and put them into a film, of course it was also the belief at the time this movie is based. But the difference is that these women came out on top, the proved they were intelligent and independent, they became some of the most influential people in history because of this film, while before they were hardly recognized.

Another film I’d like to highlight is the movie Moonlight. This film follows the life of an African American gay male, and his experience growing up in Miami, Florida. Moonlight is not an easy film to sit through, although it’s truth rings loud and clear for many Americans. New York Times author A.O. Scott mentioned: “’Moonlight’ is both a disarmingly, at times almost unbearably personal film and an urgent social document, a hard look at American reality and a poem written in light, music and vivid human faces” (Scott). I think it’s interesting that even though many Americans don’t consider race a problem, or gender preference, this film shows how much more we still have to grow, in both a racial and LGBTQ light. A.O. Scott states that “[‘Moonlight’] evokes clichés of African American masculinity in order to shatter them” (Scott). This quote is very influential, it proves that the film industry cannot control every film, and they even release films that are going against the norms of their corporations. This film created talk of diversity and LGBTQ rights, it provoked discussion, something any type of media should do for its audience.

Overall, the film industry has a lot of work to do before they reach a point of total diversity and acceptance of minorities. However, the way they produce movies has been working for well for them up until this point, so I can’t imagine any major changes are going to be implemented any time soon. It’s unfortunate to think that some of the minds that create films used for entertainment, are so small minded that they can’t create a new type of film, one that pushes the norms of the industry. However, it was really interesting learning about the history of the film industry and why they do things the way they do. When people tell me that film has become a product, I laugh slightly. Film has always been a product, from the very beginning it was used to make money. We are just now starting to realize how much of a product it really is.

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rachelhowieewrites · 6 years

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Lab 3:

Corporation: The Walt Disney Industry

The Walt Disney Company started in 1923 in a small office in Los Angeles. Where he and his brother Roy would work on short animated films that they would collectively name “Alice Comedies.” Mickey Mouse would be born in 1928, followed by all of his friends shortly after. In 1937 Disney would produce, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.” Many laughed at the idea of a full length animated film, but when the movie was released, it was instantly popular. Because of its worldwide fame, Walt Disney was able to purchase over 51 acres in Burbank, CA, and start work on his studio, which would be designed specifically to produce animated films. Only in the late 1940s would Disney turn its attention to live action films. There would be four stages developed for four different types of films, and Disney would start its way to becoming the leading media conglomerate.

Disney was founded and made by Walt Disney, but after his demise Robert A. Iger took the seat of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. The rest of the chairs are filled by other white people, there is no diversity within Disney’s executive offices, which can be problematic when creating media that is going to influence people worldwide. In fact, famous Disney director James Gunn was fired because of offensive Tweets he had previously made, some revolving around the concept of race. The Washington Post poses the question if it was really necessary to fire someone because of backlash from fans, or if Disney overreacted to the backlash in fear of losing money.

An example of Disney’s structure is included in Figure 1. Disney does both vertical and horizontal integration. From when they started they horizontally integrated by partnering with other production companies, and with creating new products off of their movies. However, the vertically integrate when they purchase companies such as ESPN or with the creation of their amusement parks, even though they use their movies and characters to get people into their parks, they did not have to create amusement parks in order to gain more fame for their films. Take this for example, Disney is building a nature themed resort for some of their older guests. Did they need to make this change? No, because Disneyland and Disneyworld are fun for the whole family. But they did, in order to target demographics without children.

Disney recently acquired Fox, Marvel, Hulu, The Simpsons, Star Wars, and others. Merging these companies together cost Disney a whopping 71.3 million dollars. Certain films and TV shows are expected to be halted as a result of the merge, with many fans growing upset at the lack of communication from the company. This NewsWeek article claims that this could be a falloff point for many of these smaller companies, with over 5,000 job positions to be laid off. However, this could be a really big move for Disney, acquiring not only streaming services but million-dollar movies and TV shows can be super beneficial if Disney keeps up with the original premises. However, if they screw up Star Wars or any of the Marvel movies they could face extreme backlash.

However, others see this as a corporate uprising. Saying that this could be the death of some of our favorite movies. Not only this, but also claiming that Disney owns too much already, and their continuation of integration is only making them more powerful. And some companies are giving in to and uprooting themselves in order to join the Disney corporation. Disney is an international company, with their movies and parks distributed in multiple countries.

The good news about buying all these corporations is that Disney already knows the way they have been distributed, and the ways it can improve. Disney was not shy about the purchase of Star Wars, or Marvel for that matter, because they have faith that they can make better movies that consumers already have interest in. The problem however, is that Disney is willing to fire hard working employees in these corporations, to replace them with Disney affiliated employees, which can lead to thousands without jobs. The reason this can be a conflict of interest for Disney is because the audience now sees them as every other heartless corporation. They don’t care about the little people, only making money. Disney has lost its innocence, once being known as a company who produced happy children’s movies, and now being seen as a corporate machine. This YouTube video is two guys who have sat down to sing about everything Disney owns, and I think it really shows how a lot of people are beginning to see Disney.

youtube

Overall, Disney is an extremely large corporation with a lot of influence over a wide audience. The receive money from multiple different sources along their vertically integrated system, shown in this chart here. And their revenue doesn’t just come from American citizens, but also from countries around the world. Disney is not going to stop globalizing or buying companies to merge with. Instead, they are going to continue doing what works for them, which is continuing to integrate with these companies to make more money. Disney has lost interest with the way it looks from the outside, and is now more concerned with what will make them the most revenue.

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