Lily’s LIT2000 Blog

Daniel Waters is the creator of the 1980’s teenage film sensation titled Heathers. Heathers is a dark and satirical comedy that addresses many difficult, offensive, and serious themes that might be viewed as taboo in the movie industry, especially in the 1980’s. However, Waters addressed these topics anyways in a satirical matter. Heathers is centered around four popularity obsessed teenage girls, three of which are named Heather, and their reign of a highschool in Ohio. When the youngest of the girls named Veronica gets tired of the way her and the Heathers act towards the rest of the student body, the movie quickly takes a dark turn as she pairs up with the new kid, J.D, to kill the bullies and stage them as teenage suicides.

Suicide is a very sensitve topic to most and might be viewed as taboo in society today as it was in the 1980’s. However, Walters so bluntly addresses suicide in Heathers so that it may temporarily erase that taboo to force the viewers to actually think about the very prominant role that suicide actually plays in our society. The first suicide occurs when J.D pours drainer fluid in a glass to give to Heather C. as a “hangover cure”. She dies immediately and Heather forges a fake suicide note. The way their society and the teenagers and adults in it react to and talk about the different teenage suicides that occur shows the ignorance of suicide to society in the 1980’s, as well as in the 21st century. However, Waters addresses this issue by poking fun at suicide throughout the film. After Heather C’s staged suicide, when Veronica is asked about her plans later she responds, “Oh, I dont know. Mourn. Maybe eat a taco.” This humorous way of reacting towards death is the underlying tone of everyone else in the movie. Not only is there many forged suicides, but also actual attempted suicides throughout the movie as a result of bullying.

The theme of women and the role of sex is also satiricaly addressed throughout the entirety of the film. Its bleak and offensive descriptions of women and the role they have in sex furthur shows the satirical methods of Waters. Rape and sexual assault is very common throughout the movie, yet not talked about in a serious manner in any way. One scene in particular that stands out as satirical is when Veronica and one of the Heather’s are being sexually attacked in a field. J.D comes to Veronica’s rescue. While him and her have a “cute” relationship building moment, Heather becomes a sexual assault victim in the background. This point out societies reaction to many sexual assault cases in society back then and society today. He disturbingly portrays society’s take on sexual assault in a attemptingly humurous way.

While Heathers is extremely dark and satirical and filled to the brim with dark comedy, it is important to try and understand the meaning behind Waters different attempts at satire. By approaching these important issues with a satirical viewpoint, it harshly condemns our society’s way of viewing serious issues. It better resonates with the people.   

The Truth About Truth

There are many different themes in the play As You Like It by William Shakespeare, two of the main themes being love and truth. What is truth? Throughout the course of the play, the truth is constantly distorted and the people are constantly deceived. The whole play is structured around deception which ultimately complicates the relationships and situations throughout it. The question of what truth really is and what it takes to obtain the truth are explored throughout the entirety of the play.

The main deceivers in the play are the women, Rosalind and her cousin Celia. They begin their journey with good intentions by dressing as men to make travelling through the forest safer. However, their good intentions turn to deception when the women run into Rosalind’s love Orlando. Rosalind continues to act like a man for a majority of the play while leading on, confusing, and testing Orlando. Deceiving others to find out information that may benefit you is not truth. Truth is facing other beings and the possible flaws that come with them head on, regardless of the different possibly harmful outcomes. Rosalind and Celia attempt to determine the truth behind Orlando’s intentions all while losing their own sense of truth.

Is there a way to obtain the truth without deceit? In the play As You Like It, deceit seemed to be the only way for Rosalind to find out Orlando’s truth. The same goes in relationships today. Relationships are built off the foundation of love, trust, and most importantly the truth. Any relationship with one but not the other is doomed, especially if it is not addressed. When Rosalind reveals her true identity, Orlando hardly reacts to her deceitful tricks she played on him. This play proves to the audience and to our society as a whole that love makes us blind to the truth.   

My assigned poem is titled The Bait written by John Donne. The poem in essence is about a man convincing his lover to come stay with him, presumably in marriage. He does this by describing the alluring attributes of his lover. He compares their life together to a river teeming with fish. He tells her that she will not have to catch fish in a messy manner, but rather she will serve as her own bait, and the fish will willingly and peacefully come to her. He ends the poem with a strange yet endearing compliment stating that any fish that can willingly refuse her “bait”, or her charm, is a fish wiser than himself.

However, critics have described this poem as a different type of spiritual metaphor. Instead of comparing Christ traditionally to a shepard and his followers to sheep, Donne instead compares Christ to his beloved and his followers to fish. In the second stanza, Christ (his beloved), outshines the sun and stars, which is a biblical reference. Next, Donne describes how the fish will follow his beloved in the water, similarly to how Christ’s followers follow him. In stanzas five and six, the poem takes a turn and talks about the harsh difficulties other fisherman face and as a result, the deceptions they use to trick the fish. This is viewed as an attack on the false religious teachers who try to deceit their followers. Donne then turns this around by saying that the true beloved (Christ) has no need for deceit.

This poem is satirical because of the way it secretly paints the picture of religion through a new perspective using fish, a river, and witty metaphors and diggs. Donne’s use of wit to attack the false teachers and those who deem “too wise” to latch on to the beloved’s bait makes this a satirical poem. It is not low humour about an unimportant subject, but is its rather higher level thinking wit, used to describe a subject regarding eternity. The poem can be viewed in many entirely different ways, which makes it that much more satirical.

 

In what way and to what extent can technology be used for good or evil? Our society in even just the past few decades has changed dramatically when it comes to the combination of science and technology to create new discoveries. The introduction of smartphones, computers, and self-driving cars are only the beginning. In the Cats Cradle, a satirical novel written by Kurt Vonnegut, the increase in different aspects of science and technology combined with flawed human nature ultimately led to the destruction of the world. If advances in science and technology are as inspiring and monumental as the world tells us, how could it bring forth so much destruction in the novel? A contemporary example of human foibles corrupting science and technology today is the concept of social media. Science and technology on its own has good, positive intentions, but when combined with the ignorance and stupidity of human beings, it can bring destruction.

In the Cats Cradle, Ice-Nine, a substance that has the ability to turn any substance into solid ice is created by Felix Hoenikker, a scientist who assisted in building the atomic bomb used to attack Hiroshima. When Felix dies, the Ice-Nine is distributed among his three children named Newt, Frank, and Angela. His children all trade their Ice-Nine for trivial things such as a job opportunity or a weekend getaway with a girl. As the traded Ice-Nine is being transported by plane, the plane malfunctions causing the substance to fall into the ocean and freeze all oceans. This trade-off may seem ridiculous and absurd to people reading from an outside perspective, but individually and in society today, we trade important things for trivial matters, like social media.

While we aren’t creating Ice-Nine on a daily basis and trading deadly substances for trivial matters, we trade our sanity, humanity, and positive mental health for the fake world of social media, which can lead to our own personal destruction as well with the destruction of our society. Social media is made to look like reality, while in actuality it is the farthest from the truth. By allowing what we see others post online to affect our personal lives can deteriorate our mental health over something that is false reality. Also with social media comes the inevitable world of cyberbullying, which can drive teenagers and even adults to depressive habits and symptoms that can affect them throughout their entire lives. It is important that we as individuals and as a society recognize these destructive patterns and habits in society today and limit the use to avoid destruction.