Ancient Chinese Philosophy Tao Te Ching Essays - Taoism

Ancient Chinese Philosophy: Tao Te Ching TAO TE CHING ?The Ancient Masters were profound and subtle. Their wisdom was unfathomable. There is no way to describe it; all we can describe is their appearance.? ?The best athlete wants his opponent at his best. The best general enters the mind of his enemy. The best businessman serves the communal food. The best leader follows the will of the people .? The teachings from the book, Tao Te Ching helped influence both the social and moral aspects of the Chinese way of life. The teachings have provided hope, and inspiration for the Chinese people. In ancient China, the people were self-providing farmers who lived exclusively off the land. They rarely took the time to intermingle with their neighbors, and the family stood independently. The people had little knowledge about the outside world and had no desire to learn. Far travel was avoided at all costs, due to the strong attachment to one's own home. The people believed that, ?No man could be full grown without his roots in his home .? The people referred to their homes as ?tien, yuan, lu mo?, which meant fields, gardens, houses, graves. The Chinese thought that the causes of crime were soldiers and wanderers. They were considered evil beings for venturing away from they home. The people believed that all things, living and un-living, had spirits in them. They felt that the spirits if disturbed, could drastically affect one's life. They used amulets, spells, prayers, incantations, and special rites to ward of misfortune. This is a direction to a later Lao Tzu's teaching stating, ?Practice not-doing, and everything will fall into place .? The home did not limit its members to the current living members; the dead and the future were also considered family. Around 650BC, during the Chou Dynasty, the value of knowledge changed. Although communication between towns was still difficult, many Sages were in desire of knowledge. Some of the most well known sages were; Mencius, Mo Tzu, Confucius, and Lao Tzu, the author of Tao Te Ching. Confucius wrote about the problems of man, and proposed many solutions. He also wrote about authority and respect, and proposed ?submissiveness.? His works helped influence the way that government was run, and Confucius actively participated in government. His teachings were present in the Chinese government for many years, until the belief in Tao. A sage named Lao Tzu created the Tao religion. Very little is known about Lao Tzu. Even the meaning of his name is a mystery; ?the Old Master? or ?the Old Boy The only thing we do know about Lao Tzu is that he wrote the book, TAO TE CHING, and created a thought revolution. His reference to the eternal force he called Tao, gave people inspiration, and a new method of thinking. Lao Tzu described Tao as, ?The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal Name. The unnamable is the eternally real. Naming is the origin of all particular things. Free from desire, you realize mystery. Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations. Yet mystery and manifestations arise from the same source. Darkness within darkness. The gateway to all understanding. ? and later went on to say, ?The Tao is infinite, eternal. Why is it eternal? It was never born; thus it can never die. Why is it infinite? It has no desires for itself; thus it is present for all beings. ? Taoism believed in little governmental interference. This is best described through the belief that, ?the meek would inherit the earth. ?. Another example would be from the passage by Lao Tzu stating, ?Throw away holiness and wisdom, and the people will be a hundred time happier. Throw away morality and justice, and the people will do the right thing. Throw away industry and profit, and there won't be any thieves. ? Taoism is most described as that which is striving for equality. The thought of remaining in the middle, is the general belief in Taoism. . The creation of Yin and Yang derived from the belief of Tao. Tao is not only tangible things, but also what cannot be comprehended. What cannot be seen is also know as the ultimate

Free Essays on HardDrives

Nearly every desktop computer and server in use today contains one or more hard-disk drives. Every mainframe and supercomputer is normally connected to hundreds of hard-disk drives. Hard disks were invented in the 1950s. They started as large disks up to 20 inches in diameter holding just a few megabytes. Hard drives were originally called "fixed disks" or "Winchesters" (a code name used for a popular IBM product). They later became known as "hard disks" to distinguish them from "floppy disk drives". Hard disks have a hard platter that holds the magnetic medium, as opposed to the flexible plastic film found in tapes and floppies. The earliest true hard disks had the heads of the hard disk in contact with the surface of the disk. This was done to allow the low-sensitivity electronics of the day to be able to better read the magnetic fields on the surface of the disk. The very first production hard disk was the IBM 305 RAMAC (Random Access Method of Accounting and Control), in troduced on September 13, 1956. The RAMAC stored 5 million characters (approximately five megabytes, but a â€Å"character† in those days was only seven bits, not eight) on a whopping 50 disks, each 24 inches in diameter. Its arealdensity was about 2,000 bits per square inch; in comparison, today’s drives have arealdensity measured in billions of bits per square inch. The data transfer rate of this first drive was an impressive 88,000 bytes per second. Over the succeeding years, the technology improved incrementally; arealdensity, capacity and performance all increased. In 1962, IBM introduced the model 1301 Advanced Disk File. The key advance of this disk drive was the creation of heads that floated or flew above the surface of the disk on an air bearing reducing the distance from the heads to the surface of the disks from 800 to 250 microinches. In 1973, IBM introduced the model 3340 disk drive which is commonly considered to e the father of the ... Free Essays on HardDrives Free Essays on HardDrives Nearly every desktop computer and server in use today contains one or more hard-disk drives. Every mainframe and supercomputer is normally connected to hundreds of hard-disk drives. Hard disks were invented in the 1950s. They started as large disks up to 20 inches in diameter holding just a few megabytes. Hard drives were originally called "fixed disks" or "Winchesters" (a code name used for a popular IBM product). They later became known as "hard disks" to distinguish them from "floppy disk drives". Hard disks have a hard platter that holds the magnetic medium, as opposed to the flexible plastic film found in tapes and floppies. The earliest true hard disks had the heads of the hard disk in contact with the surface of the disk. This was done to allow the low-sensitivity electronics of the day to be able to better read the magnetic fields on the surface of the disk. The very first production hard disk was the IBM 305 RAMAC (Random Access Method of Accounting and Control), in troduced on September 13, 1956. The RAMAC stored 5 million characters (approximately five megabytes, but a â€Å"character† in those days was only seven bits, not eight) on a whopping 50 disks, each 24 inches in diameter. Its arealdensity was about 2,000 bits per square inch; in comparison, today’s drives have arealdensity measured in billions of bits per square inch. The data transfer rate of this first drive was an impressive 88,000 bytes per second. Over the succeeding years, the technology improved incrementally; arealdensity, capacity and performance all increased. In 1962, IBM introduced the model 1301 Advanced Disk File. The key advance of this disk drive was the creation of heads that floated or flew above the surface of the disk on an air bearing reducing the distance from the heads to the surface of the disks from 800 to 250 microinches. In 1973, IBM introduced the model 3340 disk drive which is commonly considered to e the father of the ...

Finance and Management Accounting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Finance and Management Accounting - Essay Example No commercial entity runs an R & D department to conduct in fructuous basic research ((ICMR), 2003). Management accounting is the process of identification, measurement, accumulation, analysis, preparation, interpretation and communication of information that assists managers in specific decision-making within framework of fulfilling the organizational objectives (The ICFAI University Press, 2004). Like water, this rising tide of data can be viewed as an abundant, vital and necessary resource. With enough preparation, we should be able to tap into that reservoir -- and ride the wave -- by utilizing new ways to channel raw data into meaningful information. That information, in turn, can then become the knowledge that leads to wisdom. The idea is that information, knowledge, and wisdom are more than simply collections. Rather, the whole represents more than the sum of its parts and has a synergy of its own. In an organizational context, data represents facts or values of results, and relations between data and other relations have the capacity to represent information. Patterns of relations of data and information and other patterns have the capacity to represent knowledge. ... Without on-demand access to managed knowledge, every situation is addressed based on what the individual or group brings to the situation with them. With on-demand access to managed knowledge, every situation is addressed with the sum total of everything anyone in the organization has ever learned about a situation of a similar nature. Management accounting --- Importance of Stakeholders In the highly competitive environment, the survival of an organization may depend on how well stakeholders are managed. However, when managers delegate this responsibility of managing the stakeholder interests, there is no systematic way to evaluate their performance. With an evaluation method, such as a report card, managers no longer rely on observations regarding the outcomes of stakeholder management; they receive direct information from their stakeholders and can plan interventions accordingly (Slovensky, 2002). Management planning and control system is related to accounting system. Suitable goals are set based on the information provided by the accountants. Projections of futures sales, expenses, incomes and estimation of profit are made depending on the accounting information. After setting goals while examining alternatives, information about these alternatives comes from accounting system and the accountant is made to combine the data and produce meaningful reports. Though, implementation of chosen alternative is done by the mangers alone without the intervention of accounting system, the accountant is required to collect and summarize data about the success of the chosen plan. The evaluation of performance depends heavily on the accountant accumulates and reports. Though, accounting system is helpful in the process of

Online environments require and encourage a different way of working Essay

Online environments require and encourage a different way of working and studying. Critically discuss whether you agree with this statement, supporting your a - Essay Example The proliferation and sophistication of the Internet makes it possible to establish online learning and instruction domains that can be accessed by learners belonging to various age groups, irrespective of their gender. Thus the Internet has evolved into a pedagogical tool, through which education can be imparted to learners. Online learning constitutes a education that is challenging, in comparison to conventional classroom learning. This type of education requires the use of computers as the delivery vehicle. Consequently, students who are desirous of learning online must possess the skills to operate computers and they must be familiar with computer technologies2. The significant characteristic of this computerized learning medium is interactivity. This characteristic enables the users of computers to modify, change and manipulate the on screen objects. The software programmes are designed to allow such manipulations by the users. Computers that are connected to the internet provide users with an opportunity to communicate with other users across the world. Moreover, the developers and researchers of computer – based education are chiefly concerned with three major aspects involved in interactivity. First, support provided for online learning courses. Secondly, the opportunity of interaction with the content and learning material available online and lastly, the ability of the learners to access, manipulate, synthesise and communicate content information3. The other factors of concern include interaction with instructors, the ability of participants to communicate with tutors and receive their comments and observations, and interaction with other online learners. All these factors promote the development of an active learning community. The traditional classrooms have a well established teacher – student relationship. The students feel the presence of the teacher and there will be a face – to – face

RNA silencing for the prevention of Phytophthora root rot in avocado Literature review

RNA silencing for the prevention of Phytophthora root rot in avocado - Literature review Example So, the scientists and the concerned people have found out a way to tackle this menace [2]. It is the use of RNA. The RNA is used to inhibit specific gene expression of the plants to prevent Phytophthora root rot in avocado plants. It was further found that the growing population is causing a sharp increase in the demand of the avocado across all over the world [3]. In order meet the rise in the demand, the farmers or the cultivators are using a number of elements to increase the production of the avocados. Overuse of the elements is further affecting the plants. The plants are getting affected by pests. Among them the rot root fungi is the most common form of the pests. Excessive spread of the fungi would destroy the crop and highly affect the cultivation of the crops so the scientists have discovered a number of methods which would prevent this. Among them RNA slicing is one of the most common methods for the prevention of Phytophthora root rot in avocado. According to a study, it was found that the Phytophthora root rot in avocado is primarily caused by Phytophthora cinnamomi, which is an economically important disease in the avocados around the world [1]. The crops when affected with fungi and gets harmed with Phytophthora root rot, it completely destroys the crops and leaving co crop for sell and make money out of it. In Australian agriculture, economic cost of losing were estimated in previous 20 years to be more than AUS$200 million per year [] and around US$44million in California annually []. The RNA silencing is used to increase the resistance of the avocado trees with the help of transgenic rootstocks. It is expected to reduce the incidences of fungi attack on the avocado plants. It was found that the fungi attack on the avocado trees could be prevented with the help of RNA interference process [4]. The authors further explain RNA interference as a cellular process where the RNA molecules

Media Essays Baudrillard Media Terrorism

Media Essays Baudrillard Media Terrorism Baudrillard Media Terrorism Discuss Baudrillard’s controversial contention that Western media have been complicit in terrorism. What does he mean and how convincing is his argument? Jean Baudrillard was an influential but highly controversial French Philosopher, Sociologist and cultural theorist. The â€Å"prophet of the postmodern media spectacle† (Butterfield: 2002) best known for his work on contemporary social theory, the modes of mediation and technological communication (Kellner: 1994: 1), commenting in particular on AIDS, cloning, the first Gulf War and terrorism. Baudrillards writings and his almost confrontational view have led to him being fiercely criticised by many, giving him nicknames such as â€Å"the high priest of post-modernism† (Gane: 1991: 47) and â€Å"the David Bowie of Philosophy† (Merrin: 2005a: 5). His continual TV appearances, tours and newspaper coverage only reinforced his critics â€Å"suspicion of his superficiality† (Merrin: 2005a: 6). Overall his theories were regarded as old hat up until 9/11 and the World Trade Centre terrorist attacks, where his writings on the matter once again put him in the spotlight, although not all agreed with what he has to say none could help but take note. Before I get into Baudrillards writings on terrorism it is important to outline some of his earlier works and theories, so you get a good scope of the mans thinking’s and view of the world in which we live in. An important point, central to all Baudrillards theories is his concern over the importance of images within contemporary culture. He builds upon Plato’s allegory of the cave, in which he compares the world’s population to cave dwellers, viewing false reality instead of absolute truth, in the form of shadows on the wall. Baudrillard takes inspiration from this idea, as well as the work of Lev Manovich, to come up with a theory which has been described as â€Å"inverted Platonism† (Stam: 2000: 306). In â€Å"Plato’s Cave† the cave dwellers, shackled to the wall, naively view the shadows cast on the back wall as actuality as they have never seen anything other than that, they never experience the absolute truth only the manufactured truth. Baudrillard takes this one step further though by â€Å"denying the existence of any actuality or reality that may be revealed† (Plantinga: 1996: 307), arguing that there is no protocols now in place which can help us distinguish between appearances and reality. Baudrillard states that we are stuck in a postmodern â€Å"hyper-reality†, where ‘truth’ is â€Å"simply the latest media consensus† (Plantinga: 1996: 307). The televisions, images and mass media which have now replaced Plato’s cave wall have become a means not of informing and revealing truth but of taking part in the creation of the manufactured consensus which passes as truth and knowledge in the postmodern world (Plantinga: 1996: 307). The real has almost completely disappeared, with any glimmer of absolute truth over-shadowed by media simulation. In his book Simulacra and Simulation Baudrillard looks at the West’s relationship between reality and images. He claims that modern society has replaced all reality and meaning with symbols and signs, and that humans are experiencing a simulation of reality rather than reality itself. This is an idea famously explored in the Wachowski brothers film The Matrix (1999), with the character Morpheus referring to the real world as the â€Å"desert of the real† (Baudrillard: 1994: 1), a reference lifted straight from Baudrillards work. Baudrillard has since claimed in interview that The Matrix is nothing more than a misunderstanding of his work (Lancelin: 2004). The simulacra that Baudrillard refers to are signs of culture and media that creative the perceived reality, serving as a powerful form of â€Å"social control† (Baudrillard: 1993a: 60), and can be divided into four discreet semiotic stages. Before simulacra, in pre-modern societies signs are few in number and simply refer to and reflect reality. Their primary purpose is to reflect a divinely sanctioned hierarchy and social positioning (Barker: 1996: 50), rigid and firmly fixed in place. Religious paintings such as those of Jesus or the Virgin Mary are held to be true copies of a higher reality, which people can worship like they are the real thing, disregarding the fact that they are nothing but a replica. The so called First Order of Simulacra stretches through the 14th and 15th centuries, during the Renaissance period. Baudrillard states that during this counterfeit time we changed from being a limited order of signs, â€Å"to a proliferation of signs according to demand† (1983: 85). As religious views and sanctioned hierarchy begin to fade, man-made copies of the real world start to be produced on mass. For the first time during this period we get signs splitting away from reality, the truth can be altered and changed to suit different purposed, creating false copies which are not representable. The third stage and Second Order of Simulacra came as a consequence of the Industrial Revolution, where advances in mechanical production in things such as cameras and printers radically changed the relationship between signs and the real. At this stage an â€Å"industrial law of value† (Smart: 1993: 52) reigns, where technological and mechanical reproduction come to constitute a new reality. The more these signs multiply, the more their relationship with the real is undermined. As Walter Benjamin once said images become the things themselves, absorbing â€Å"the process of production, changing it finalities and altering the status of product and producer† (Baudrillard: 1983: 98). The reproductions dilute the experience of the unique image, they lose the special value associated with the unique and authentic, instead acquiring a much more abstract kind of value. Baudrillard’s Third Order of Simulacra is where we are at now. In our contemporary postmodern societies, images have floated free of reality, taking the processes of abstraction which took hold in industrial modernity to their extremes. As Baudrillard says â€Å"one is not the simulacrum of which the other would be the real: there are only simulacra† (1994: 21). The copy has now become the real, with nothing authentic left behind the simulation. It is no longer possible to appeal to a real referent, as distinctions between representations and objects can no longer be sustained in a world where simulation models rule (Smart: 1993: 52). Baudrillard’s work explores the paradoxes of post-modern, simulation culture, stating that we have now got to a stage where the simulations merely refer to other simulations. As he sees it we can no longer experience anything outside the codes of simulation, the boundaries between signification and reality have imploded, so now all we can experience are representations of representations. According to Baudrillard reality has either disappeared or never existed in the first place. This death of reality has caused enormous panic amongst our post-modern culture as we attempt to nostalgically resurrect and retrieve the real. We find evidence of these attempts to search for authenticity everywhere, as Baudrillard says â€Å"when the real is no longer what it used to be, nostalgia assumes it full meaning† (2001: 174). The rise of myths of origin, second-hand truth and objectivity, lead to an escalation of the true lived experience, which grows into a demand for things which are more and more real. Baudrillard defines this obsessing of the real as â€Å"hyperreality† (1995: 28), with it in fact taking us further away, rather than closer to the real. We as a postmodern culture never stop on our search for more reality, through things such as DVD deleted scenes and commentaries, and the watchings of documentary series such as Bodyshock and Extraordinary People, with their less than subtitle titles, we attempt to come closer with ‘reality’, but once again we are just one step closer to a media fabrication. Baudrillards views reject those of traditional Marxist productivism, with him thinking they no longer offer an adequate explanation to postmodern situations. He has turned to theorists who look at formulating an alternative notion of economy and culture, based on observations of primitive societies, in particular the work of Georges Bataille. Bataille’s notion of the â€Å"solar economy† (1997: 193) of excess and destruction argued that there is a more fundamental, primary form of economy which could be taken straight form primitive society. Baudrillard also studied the work of Marcel Mauss, with his theories on gift-giving. Mauss states that there was no â€Å"pure expenditure† (Mauss: 2001: 98) without the expectation of a replicating â€Å"counter-gift† (Mauss: 1998: 101). This â€Å"symbolic exchange† between gift and counter-gift becomes the law of the universe, the challenge to give. Baudrillard refers to the semiotic culture in which we live as â€Å"the code† (2001: 7), where control has been taken from the realm of decision-making. Where our Western binaristic semiotic culture rests largely on binary opposites, good and evil, life and death, etc, societies based on symbolic exchange do not. Everyday life deals with symbolic offerings of gifts to the dead, and they are expected to respond as a matter of obligation. I n western semiotic culture, our choices are defined in terms of yes/no decisions, binaristic regulations which displace real choice, pepsi or coke, Manchester United or Manchester City, for example. When Baudrillard refers to an event as symbolic he means that it is a gift, and thus demands a counter-gift in return, resulting in a challenge. 9/11 was the largest example of this symbolic challenge, and perhaps â€Å"the most potent symbolic event since the crucifixion of Christ† (Butterfield: 2002), where the terrorists gave a gift to the west in the form of terrorism, so there was no alternative than for the gift to be countered. Baudrillard stated that the erection of the twin towers â€Å"signifies the end of competition† (1993a: 69) and the monopoly of binary logic. Where before the Manhattan skyline had been filled with skyscrapers all competing with each other for our attention, the World Trade Centre with its two identical towers put an end to it, they where both the yes and the no. William Merrin says that Baudrillard is â€Å"motivated by his belief in the radical presence and possibility of symbolic forces opposing, spiralling with and irrupting within the semiotic culture† (2005b). His views have never differed from those that semiotic culture has never truly freed itself from older symbolic culture, with the symbolic operating within the semiotic. We need to break out of this yes/no culture and find the symbolic within and outside culture. For Baudrillard it is this outside culture, notably Islam, which threatens the Western semiotic system. Although his theory has been attacked as â€Å"an imaginary construct which tries to seduce the world to become as theory wants it to be† (Kellner: 1989: 178), Baudrillard claims that the media itself creates many of the worlds events, and thus are actually ‘non-events’ as they are creations of simulation. Things such as Reality TV and celebrity news create a large number of these hyperreal non-events, which just wouldn’t happen without the media. We as media consumer’s infact crave real events to happen, even going as far as to fantasize about them. Films such as Cloverfield, The Siege and Day After Tomorrow, show our secret fantasies of mass destruction and death, which creep into our mundane lives. With the rise of these non-events comes the rise of ‘fateful events’, in the same way simulation triggers a quest for the real. The death of Princess Diana was the result of a media circus, reality TV which created both a non-event and a â€Å"secret exhilaration† (Merrin: 2005b) In the same way as Diana’s death, 9/11 was a non-event in the sense that it was experienced as a hyperreal image and embraced as a media event. The buildings where chosen as targets due to their media prominence, relating to films and previous fantasies of destructions. It was however also, as Baudrillard calls it, an â€Å"absolute event† (2003: 41) in that it testified to some secret symbolic sense of fate in Western culture. For Baudrillard â€Å"in the end it was they who did it but we who wished it† (2003: 5), the terrorists where just â€Å"pushing that which already wants to fall† (1993b: 209). Baudrillard sees this terrorism as being produced by the repression of the symbolic, with it returning, infiltrating and destroying us like a virus. The closer the western project of globalisation gets to perfection, the more we will see resistant symbolic challenges. Baudrillard says that the more cursed gifts of westernisation we give out the more countergifts we will receive in the form of sacrificial death. 9/11 is a paradox, Islam’s countergift to the west. The west has responded in the only way they know how, as a semiotic culture, by going to war. Although it was not as simple as yes/no, good/evil, this is how it was responded to, conceived in binary, systematic terms. As Baudrillard states â€Å"if we hope to understand anything we will need to get beyond Good and Evil† (2002), this was much more than just a clash of civilisations; it was gift giving at its most destructive. Jean Baudrillard sets out to be provocative in his work, he wants to stand out and make people take not of him, even if it’s for all the wrong reasons. He describes himself as a â€Å"terrorist and nihilist in theory as the others are with their weapons† (1994: 163), noting that change must be brought upon our postmodern society, although not through means of violence. For Baudrillard it is our semiotic culture that have given rise to terrorism, through its imposing of our values on other cultures and mass media fantasization of our own destruction, so we must accept the returning gift of terror which comes with that. As Baudrillard says, the only thing which is not acceptable about terrorism is the violence behind it, â€Å"theoretical violence, not truth, is the only recourse left to us† (1994: 163). Through his work he was trying to do what the terrorists where, just without killing anyone. Bibliography Barker, S., 1996. Signs of Change: Premodern, Modern, Postmodern. New York: SUNY Press Baudrillard, J., 1983. Simulations. New York: Semiotext(e) Baudrillard, J., 1993a. Symbolic Exchange and Death. London: Sage Baudrillard, J., 1993b. Baudrillard Live: Selected Interviews. London: Routledge Baudrillard, J., 1994. Simulacra and Simulation. Michigan: University of Michigan Press Baudrillard, J., 1995. America. London: Verso Baudrillard, J., 2001. Jean Baudrillard: Selected Writings. Stanford: Stanford University Press Baudrillard, J., 2002. L’Espirit du Terrorisme. Trans. Donovan Hohn. Harper’s Magazine, February 2002. p.13-18 Baudrillard, J., 2003. The Spirit of Terrorism. London: Verso Botting, F. Wilson, S., 1997. Bataille: A Critical Reader. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Butterfield, B., 2002. The Baudrillardian Symbolic, 9/11, and the War of Good and Evil [ONLINE]. Postmodern Culture, 13.1 (September). Available at: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/postmodern_culture/v013/13.1butterfield.html [accessed: 12.03.08] Gane, M., 1991. Baudrillard: Critical and Fatal Theory. London: Routledge Keller, D., 1989. Jean Baudrillard: From Marxism to Postmodernism and Beyond. Stanford: Stanford UP Keller, D., 1994. Baudrillard: A Critical Reader. Oxford: Blackwell Lancelin, A., 2004. Le Nouvel Observateur with Baudrillard [ONLINE]. Le Nouvel Observateur. Available at: http://www.empyree.org/divers/Matrix-Baudrillard_english.html [accessed: 17.04.08] Mauss, M., 1998. Marcel Mauss: A Centenary Tribute. Oxford: Berghahn Books Mauss, M., 2001. The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies. New York: Routledge Merrin, W., 2005a. Baudrillard and the Media: A Critical Introduction. Cambridge: Polity Merrin, W., 2005b. Total Screen: 9/11 and the Gulf War Reloaded. International Journal of Baudrillard Studies, Volume 2, Number 2, July 2005 Plantinga, C., 1996. Moving Pictures and the Rhetoric of Nonfiction: Two Approaches. In Bordwell, D Carroll, N., Post-theory: Reconstructing Film Studies. Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press. p. 307 Smart, B., 1993. Postmodernity. London: Routledge Stam, R., 2000. Film Theory: An Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell

A Prayer for Owen Meany Essay -- Literary Analysis, John Irving

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving through a Jungian Archetypal Lens Carl Jung was a Swiss psychologist and psychiatrist who developed many theories concerning the unconscious mind. Jung’s theories state that the unconscious part of a human’s psyche has two different layers, the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious. The personal unconscious is unique to every individual; however, the collective unconscious â€Å"is inborn.† (Carl Jung, Four Archetypes, 3) The collective unconscious is present in everyone’s psyche, and it contains archetypes which are â€Å"those psychic contents which have not yet been submitted to conscious elaboration† (Jung, Archetypes, 5); they are templates of thought that have been inherited through the collective unconscious. Jung has defined many different archetypes such as the archetype of the mother, the archetype of the hero, the archetype of the shadow, etc. These Jungian archetypes are often projected by the collective unconscious onto others. If the novel A Prayer for Ow en Meany by John Irving is examined through a Jungian archetypal lens it is possible to discern different archetypes projected by the protagonist’s unconscious self to illustrate the effects of the collective unconscious on character and plot analysis. Tabitha Wheelwright embodies the archetype of the mother. Which shows us how with reflection, John sees her with a divine quality; he mythologizes her. Jung’s theory states that: â€Å"Parents are early major carriers of projection, and children unconsciously project omnipotence and omniscience onto them. These are what Jung called archetypal projections. The parents become gods, invested with powers that people have attributed to the divine. ‘Daddy can do anything! He’s the str... ...f it is not accepted first. Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving is one of the many novels that can be analysed through a Jungian archetypal lens to show how the unconscious projection of archetypal images affects how a person views others people's actions and their behaviours. In this novel the narrator John Wheelwright projects different archetypes onto different people dependant on their role in his life. This shows us how the novel A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving is not objective because as a reader, you see all events and characters though John’s eyes. Everything that you read is tainted by the archetypal images John’s unconscious self which are being projected onto different characters and situations. This leads the reader to the question of how does one know that the story of Owen Meany is true, and that all the characters are portrayed truthfully.