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So a little explanation in case some background is needed. Bonds is endorsing an Under Armour shirt and I placed a "steroids" bottle in his hand. Apple recently was busted for tracking its iPhone users, so I put there logo on a radar screen. Unfortunately theyt do not have some tagline that would make it funnier. Possibly more to come.

Maus II

http://www.writework.com/essay/textual-analysis-critique-maus-ii

The above link describes how Maus II delivers a history lesson in a way that a history book filled with statistics and names is incapable of doing. Statistics and names do not reveal the hardships that the people in the camps underwent. His visual representation, along with his constant pausing to remind the reader how this story is coming to light, describes the Holocaust in a way that other media has not yet been capable of doing. The link also describes how the Holocaust will have a lasting impression on the generation who lived during that time period and every generation to follow. This book is not just another story of how it must have been, the for sure truth, but instead the trials of a camp survivor relayed to an audience by his son. This exceptionally different method reminds the reader that the Holocaust can never be represented in its fullest form.

Cat's Cradle

Cat's Cradle can be considered a postmodern text because of its critique of modernism values such as progress leading towards a Utopian society. In Cat's Cradle, a scientist at the General and Foundry says that with the development of the A-bomb science has met sin. If the purpose of science was to lead towards a Utopia, sin was not a desired outcome. It also highlights that the use of research conducted is not always as pure as was intended by the developer. Vonnegut believes that the search for the final progress that leads to a Utopian society is a never ending search. Cat's Cradle also appraised the religious conformity the Bokononists have. Vonnegut believes that while there may not be any science behind the religion, the religion and myths are what make the people happy and does not confuse them.

Brave New World and the Real World

Although the comfortable lifestyle Huxley envisioned in "Brave New World" seems far beyond a possibility, his vision of "chemically driven paradise-engineering" is becoming reality. In the era ofpost genomic medicine, which we live in, our DNA is likely to be spliced and edited multiple times in order for mankind to enjoy lifelong bliss. The conditioning which the citizens receive begins at the moment of conception (creation). From the very beginning a person is altered to be able to perform specific tasks and are not allowed any functions not deemed important for their jobs. An example of this conditioning is emerging very rapidly. Single celled organisms are being built from the most basic pieces in order to create cells that serve a specific purpose. Starting with a cell which the original DNA has been washed from, a large amount of nucleic acid bases, and an advanced computer capable of synthesizing an entire genome based on a template that can be modified a multitude of times with the click of a button, researchers are able to create life. Currently there is no guarantee whether the DNA sequence, (with modifications such as insertions and deletions), will be capable of creating a viable cell. Delete one gene and the cell dies, delete another and it lives is the current predicament. However, as time passes researchers will be able to create single celled organisms with all of the properties of life, but only contain enough genetic material to perform a certain task. Such tasks would include the building of enzymes, proteins, or other compounds. Eventually these cells could be used as a treatment for things like diabetes.

The Industrial Revolution is outdated by about 200 years

The standards which students are held to today are hurting more than helping. Students are taught as if information will only be shown to them once. After that one time, hopefully they wrote all of the information, students will be expected to memorize as much as possible and then they will be tested to see how much they can memorize, not how much they can do. This method of teaching assumes that information is not free and easily accessible, which all information is thanks to the internet. A multitude of resources are available, but deemed useless because use of resources outside of a person's memory, (ability to memorize), are considered cheating. Likewise, students are not sent through school, or life for that matter (but that is not relevant), by their abilities. Students go through school based on when they were "manufactured" as Sir Ken Robinson states. This relates very well to Huxley's dystopia, which you would think would clue people in that this is not a good idea. In his dystopia, portrayed in "Brave New World", people are designed to take the place of those who were created before them. Mustapha Mond acknowedges this fact when he says "Wheels must turn steadily, but can not turn untended. There must be men to tend them, men as sturdy as the wheels upon their axles, sane men, obedient men, stable in contentment." He is stating that when one man becomes unfit to turn the wheel, another will take his place. In the society people are manufactured in groups, as bundles that will all begin and cease to exist at the same time.

Society of a Brave New World

            The society which Aldous Huxley envisioned in "Brave New World" is a society of very different mentalities towards sexuality and family roles. In the society Aldous Huxley created, sexuality is viewed as not only a public matter, but sex is a practice which young children are "playing, very gravely and with all the focused attention of scientists intent on a labour of discovery, a rudimentary sex game" (38). Sex is viewed only as a game and a path to pleasure, not as a method of reproduction. Mustapha Mond declares his view when he states that "there must be men to tend them... stable in contentment" (48). He believes that in order for man to be productive he must experience pleasure as he desires, which is why everyone belongs to every one else. In order to convince the citizens that an idea such as "free love" was acceptable the ideas of family, monogamy, and feeling were turned into vile subjects. A family unit was believed to be oppressive and largely filled with strong negative emotions. From a very young age girls were taught the use of contraceptives to prevent pregnancy, if the women were even fertile. Feelings were considered primordial, something that was not logical and should be overlooked. Impulses and desire were made to no longer exist. When Mustapha Mond asked the students if they had ever felt a desire they could not fulfill immediately only one boy raised his hand: "I once had to wait nearly four weeks before a girl would let me have her" (50). The youth have no understanding of lust or desire. They act only upon the present impulse which is fulfilled immediately. Waiting is not an option.

Huxley was about 60 years ahead of his time. No wonder people were confused about his book. Very interesting ideas though, and unfortunately, some are very present in society.