Short analysis Q1&3 Dearth

1.     There was the cast-iron pot full of seven normal potatoes, which the woman didn’t know where they were from. The woman asked her neighbor if the potatoes were wrongly delivered like the sunflowers before, but the answer was no. The woman threw the potatoes in the trash, but the next morning they went back in the same cast-iron pot on the stove. The woman took them across the road and dropped them one by one into the trash Dumpster. The next morning, the same potatoes returned, and the woman dropped them on the front stoop of her neighbor, but they returned again in the next morning in the cast-iron pot with slightly differences.

2.     The woman put the potatoes in the oven and made them crispy, ad she took them into the road. The seven-raw, gray, growing potatoes went back again the next morning. The potatoes were sent to Ireland in a box with no return address, but they returned again. The woman tried various methods to destroy the potatoes but she never succeeded. The potatoes became some shapes of human babies. The woman sliced the potatoes up and threw them out of the window, and she ate one piece. The next morning, she found seven little pale gray potato babies with legs and arms.

3.     One day in the autumn, she put the potatoes in the oven for an hour and a half, and she ate one potato and had a stomachache. She found six potatoes in the pot the next morning.

4.     The woman buried two potatoes in the soil because the pot had little room for the six potatoes that were growing bigger. On the eighth month, potato babies were fully formed with nails and feet, with eyelids and ears and potato knots. On the ninth month, the potatoes could move slowly on the floor, open their eyes with white pupils. They were named One, Two, Three and Four, and they always watched the woman go and waited her at the window.

5.     The potatoes were buried in the soil by the woman and never came back. The woman dug them out several weeks later, and they stepped into her arms.

6.     The four potatoes lifted their hands to touch the farmer they met in another county and they found amazing when they saw the farmer’s boy eat popcorn.

7.     It began to rain when the five went halfway home, and when the rain fell on the potatoes’ bodies, the smell reminded the woman of her mother.  

Response to The Forest

Response to The Forest

       The Forest is a short story talks about a special and unique relationship between a twenty-two-year-old girl – Bianca and seventy-nine-year-old scientist – Kryzsztof. Bianca dropped out from her graduate school because she thought the science was too pushy and people who were doing science were eager to gain quick success. Kryzsztof was an eminent but forgetful Polish biochemist who gave a bunch of same talks to American scientists. They met in a scientists’ party, and initially Bianca disliked Kryzsztof due to the misspelling of her name, but after they shared Kryzsztof’s special vodka, they talked about their past and their stories concerning bison and the forest in northeast Poland. After Kryzsztof demonstrated his scientific work of sturdy bubbles, Bianca drove Kryzsztof to a forest and they saw a group of beautiful deer. Kryzsztof fell to the muds but saw the stars from which he found himself back into the most natural one as well as Bianca.

       In the story, Barrett mainly wants to find out the relationship between nature and science. The nature here includes the nature of the environment like the forest as well as the human nature. She collects the scientific and historical data to make her story more vivid and impressive. For example, Kryzsztof’s process of generating large and sturdy bubbles is based on scientific knowledge of surface tension, but through the conversations between Kryzsztof and Bianca, Barrett aims to satire the deteriorative condition of science development nowadays. Another data is a part of Polish history in the background of which Kryzsztof’s mother disappeared. She grew up in the forest where there were bison and bears and many other rare animals, but during the world war I German soldiers destroyed the forest as well as bison, she came back and tried to save the forest. She vanished because of the war, but her spirit still existed in the special vodka made from bison grass and accompanied Kryzstof.

       In the end of the story, Krysztof wanted to go back to his most natural and original life and way of thinking about science like his mother. Bianca wanted to go away from her sister and started her own life like her grandfather. The power of nature saved them and aroused their feeling of living in the most natural way.

       

Response#3 "Designing Gamification in the Right Way."

Response to "Designing Gamification in the Right Way"

In the article “Designing Gamification in the Right Way,” Bohyun Kim uses a very different way to carry out the research, comparing to Neuhaus’s article. Kim first points out the topic of the research – gamification, which is relatively new and has many unknown questions. Then he generally sums up the questions and classifies them into five parts. In each part, he explores the connections between the subtopic and gamification design by analyzing the ideas brought up by other experts and adding his own expertise. But in Neuhaus’s article, she explains bunches of details from observing The Simpsons and other expertise to support every small arguments she makes in every paragraph. The two articles both have high density, and the words they use are academic and serious, which makes me always lost. I think “Designing Gamification in the Right Way” is more readable because Kim classifies his research variables clearly but Neuhaus’s article does not. In addition, another similar thing between Kim’s and Neuhaus’s article is that they both think critically of their topics. Neuhaus thinks Marge is a satire of the housewives in 1950s sitcoms, but she still reinforces the traditional values as a “nuclear family.” Kim thinks that gimification can be very helpful if it is designed by clarifying the right goal, target group and its use type, gender, age, culture, academic performance and learning content, but it still has critiques and negative effects. I think thinking and doing research critically is very necessary, because it can make the results of the research more comprehensively, so the society can have fewer stereotypes.

Response#2

Summary of “Marge Simpson, Blue-Haired Housewife: Defining Domesticity on The Simpsons”

            The main topic of “Marge Simpson, Blue-Haired Housewife: Defining Domesticity on The Simpsons” written by Jessamyn Neuhaus is that The Simpsons satirizes the traditional family sitcoms like Father Knows Best in which the images of father and mother are idealized, and being a TV homemaker without frustration and exhaustion is unrealistic, but the core value of the show is that man and woman should take their social roles traditionally. There are three key terms in the essay: The Simpsons is “a direct challenge to the authoritative and attentive fathers” and a various satire of “ideal American family and work life on 1950s sitcoms” as well as the American dream, arousing viewers to notice what they ignore in daily life; the endings of the show are always sentimental, still affirming the core value of a “nuclear family”; Marge’s role of being an “unconventional” homemaker, but she is still a fundamentally domestic role embodying the core value of a “nuclear family.”

            The first term Neuhas indicates that in The Simpsons, the character of the father and husband – Homer overthrows the impression of knowledgeable and authoritative fathers made in 1950s sitcoms. Additionally, the show satirizes the ideal American family and work life that idealized in 1950s as well as the American dream from many aspects. For example, Neuhas lists detail examples from education – “The teachers in Springfield are bored and quick to stifle any creativity or curiosity in their pupils,” as well as religion – “The town’s leading Christiana are annoying…” The show also aims to invite viewers to notice what they ignore in the daily life. Neuhas quotes from Philip Roth, “Satire is mortal outrage transformed into comic art.”

            In the second term, Neuhas concludes that although the show satirizes many American social stereotypes, the endings of the show are always sentimental and touching, which affirms the core values of “a solid nuclear family,” such as loyalty, love, affection and Christianity. Neuhas explains that “despite their (the Simpsons) arguments, conflicts, and even physical violence toward one another,” the children often “express their affection for and loyalty to their parents” and “the Simpsons family is the only sitcom family to regularly attend church and to frequently dis cuss God and faith.”

            As for the third term, the discussion of Marge’s role in the family and the small society of the Springfield is the most important part of the essay. Firstly, Neuhas asserts that Marge’s role satirizes the myth of the ideal TV housewife by not easily resolving the frustration and exhaustion from bunches of housework. She lists three ways that Marge used to use to “dislocate herself from her domestic role fail” but they all didn’t work well. The first is to have a “two-star” spa, but the relief is temporary. The second one is to be employed and doing volunteer work outside home, but it is not a lasting solution. The third one is to procure her self-fulfillment via her strength, - a bake-off outside home, but she failed either. Therefore, finding values besides domestic roles is hard for homemakers, and Marge’s experiences question and refute the stereotype of being an ideal homemaker is always content. The second term that Neuhas points out is that as a homemaker, Marge’s participation in politics not only emphasizes the political stances of its authors, but also “demonstrates the way women have expanded their domestic sphere to include a public, political role.” Neuhas takes the letters between Ms. Bush and Marge as an example, indicating Marge’s good ability in participating and holding various political events, and she also represents the homemakers who also attended in public and political events. The third term is that “Marge is still a fundamentally domestic character” and the show still expresses the idea of the traditional social gender roles that “women’s place is in the home.” Neuhas lists the examples from different episodes that whenever Marge leaves the family, the family would be in a mess. On the other hand, Marge likes being a homemaker herself, because however Homer becomes, she still think he is a “perfect” man. Therefore, from the “sporadic satire of ‘housewife’ character, and only partial critiques of domestic gender roles; conflicts that are always resolved when Marge returns to homemaking.”

             In conclusion, Neuhas mainly argues that The Simpsons satirizes the traditional family sitcoms like Father Knows Best in which the images of father and mother are idealized, the endings of the show still expresses what the sitcoms in 1950s want to express, and being a TV homemaker without frustration and exhaustion is unrealistic, but the core value of the show is that man and woman should take their social roles as in “nuclear families.”