TOW #13: Führer Humor: The Art of the Nazi Comedy

Many a user of YouTube has seen a parody meme that goes something like this: a scene from the German movie Downfall, a biopic about the last days of Hitler, depicts an enraged Hitler screaming in fury over Nazi failures; however, the subtitles are parodied to make it seem as if Hitler is screaming about late pizza, learning Santa isn't real, or any number of ridiculous topics. This lampooning of the genocidal dictator has become commonplace in the decades following WWII, and is seen as a "defanging" of the Nazi regime. However, turning one of the most insidious leaders in history into a joke has its detriments according to Atlantic writer Daniel Gross. Following the release of a German Hitler comedy, Look Who's Back, Gross argues that while seemingly harmless in nature, these comedies dehumanize the atrocities committed by Hitler. 

As early as Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator Hitler has been the butt of comedic ridicule as society tries to demystify Hitler and reinforce the fact that Nazism was defeated. However, Gross argues that this demystification has distanced society from recognizing the magnitude of Hitler's atrocities. To prove this point, Gross effectively presents a counterargument and then refutes that counterargument in order to develop an objective and analytical view that proves to the viewer that Hitler's lampooning detracts from society's admission of his horrendous acts. Gross explains how this lampooning can be good, saying "Every time Hitler dies on a movie screen, every time he's reduced to a pathetic and bumbling fool, society reasserts its loathing for Nazism. Films that ridicule past injustice can help distance society from a history we’d rather not repeat". However, he then asserts that this distancing from history can be too effective: "But that distance is also the key disadvantage of Nazi slapstick. When audience members laugh at The Great Dictator or parodies of Downfall, it can become harder to imagine the thoughts or motivations of actual Nazis". Through juxtaposing his counterargument with his refutation, he not only establishes ethos as a level headed source, but logically conveys to the reader that Hitler comedies have good intentions but detrimental effects. In doing this, Gross shows us that while we must distance ourselves from the horrors of the past, we must not go too far or else we are doomed to repeat. 

TOW #12: IRB "War"

War is a concept that is almost incomprehensible to those who have never experienced it first hand. It matters not how many times someone has seen Saving Private Ryan or American Sniper; ultimately, war is still fantasized and glorified to them. One might think that they have a good idea of the PTSD and mental trauma that soldiers experience, but they never will until they find themselves in a firefight. Sebastian Jungr, author of the critically acclaimed and harrowing nonfiction account Into the Storm takes on the challenge of portraying the effects of war in their most raw state in his book War, an account of his time in the Korengal valley of Afghanistan while on assignment from magazine Vanity Fair in 2007. In this book, Jungr does not glorify the valor and courage of war but rather presents it at face value in its rawest form. In doing this, he uses extremely vivid and lifelike imagery to thrust the reader into the real world of war and its barbaric, dehumanizing nature.


Written for the American whose only exposure to war has been in the form of TV, movies, or short news clips, Jungr's main purpose in writing War is to objectively expose average Americans to the harrowing nature of war. Jungr spent varying increments of time over two years in the Korengal valley with American soldiers at the extremely remote and constantly imperiled Restrepo Outpost. His accounts of the constant threat of Taliban insurgency are extremely detailed and tense, and he perfectly encapsulates the constant state of heightened anxiety that the soldiers in Korengal constantly experienced. In one expository passage, Jungr's imagery perfectly encapsulates the constant grinding stress that the soldiers of the Korengal endure: "First Squad goes thirty-eight days without taking a shower or changing their clothes, and by the end their uniforms are so impregnated with salt that they can stand up by themselves. The men's sweat reeks of ammonia because they've long since burned off all their fat and are now breaking down muscle.  There are wolves up in the high peals that howl at night and mountain lions that creep through the KOP looking for food [...] one species of bird sounds exactly like incoming rocket propelled grenades; the men call them "RPG birds" and can't keep themselves from flinching whenever they hear them" (Jungr 53). This exhaustive passage, a passage fraught with tormenting imagery, takes the reader right to the heart of the Korengal. The reader feels as if they are there themselves, waiting in a constant state of fear and exhaustion for the next RPG to soar past the outpost, or worse, hit it. Jungr's imagery appeals heavily to the reader's sense of sympathy as it creates a feeling of constant suspense that could be cut with a knife, or the gunfire of a Taliban sniper. The reader is easily able to see how soldiers are in a constant state of mental and physical stress, and this reveals to the reader that soldiers are in a much worse state than short apathetic news clippings and movie glorifications admit. Jungr shows us that war is not a fantasy of valor and heroics, but instead a purgatory--constantly waiting for hell to erupt.

TOW #11: The Genius of Star Wars

There is something about the substance Star Wars that makes it so recognizable that at the first screech of a passing TIE fighter or the blaring horn section of John Williams sprawling score the viewer knows exactly where they are and where they are going. This familiarity, a kind of nostalgia comparable to coming home to the same smells and sounds of childhood but for millions around the world, is the biggest challenge facing J.J. Abrams and the team taking on the franchise's newest reboot, The Force Awakens. With the movie set to release in mid-December, seasoned TIME Magazine entertainment writer Lev Grossman explores what has been called "The Star Wars vernacular" and argues that J.J. Abrams has not only achieved creating this vernacular but has brought it into the light of the 21 century.

Star Wars is perhaps one of the most widely known and beloved franchises in the history of motion pictures. This worldwide love of the classic space opera is what creates such an exacting pressure for the new franchise to deliver the same phenomena that the original trilogy did. In his essay, somewhat of an attempt to assuage the fears old fans have about the new movie's merit, Grossman uses comparison and juxtaposition of the new movie to the original trilogy in order to show that The Force Awakens does indeed live up to its momentous expectations. Grossman follows a pattern of first stating facets of the original trilogy that distinguished it stylistically as a film, saying of the original "One of the eternal mysteries of Star Wars is that it looks like science fiction, with robots and lasers and such, but at the same time it's set far in the past and has the dustiness and feel of ancient history" and then following up with how the new movie holds true to this style, saying that Abrams intended the new movie to "have a history that stretched back before the start of the movie. [That] it was the weat and tear that was on a particular ship or a droid, all of these things implied this very rich history from which the story came". Through comparing how Abrams kept true to the extremely specific stylistic details of the original movie, Grossman shows how The Force Awakens lives up to the original movie's vernacular. However, Grossman also juxtaposes the new and the old, showing how The Force Awakens has a more modern spin by saying that the old movies were essentially "a movie about white men fighting to regain their rightful position as rulers" whereas with the new "the cast alone is more diverse" and "women figure in a more dynamic, physically powerful capacity". Through juxtaposing the outmoded parts of the old movies with the progressive additions to The Force Awakens, Grossman shows how Abram's was able to reconcile the essence of the original films with modern day sentiments. Thus, Grossman shows that while some things have changed in a galaxy far, far, away, to the delight of the viewer many things will remain just the same.

TOW #10: The Silicon Valley Suicides

Times have changed in high schools. Whereas adolescence used to be associated with rebellion and carelessness, it is now associated with high expectations, stress, anxiety, and depression. Especially in affluent high schools, students are continually becoming more unstable as the pressure to do well is piled on from peers, parents, and students themselves. Hannah Rosin, national correspondent for The Atlantic and author of the book The End of Man, takes on this topic in her investigative essay "The Silicon Valley Suicides". In this piece, Rosin analyzes the negative implications of overachievement by focusing on a cluster of suicides in highly affluent Palo Alto, California. She uses poignant anecdotes from former students who dealt with academic pressure in order to show that the pressure to succeed in affluent areas has created a toxic culture of depression amongst adolescents.

Rosin writes her essay to the unknowing parents of stressed out students, who unconsciously catalyze the ideology amongst students that success is the only option. Rosin argues that despite positive reinforcement, achievement based parenting is still detrimental to the mental health of teens. After delving into the lives of many of the afflicted former students of the Silicon Valley area, she deduces that parenting where achievement is seen as the only justification of parental satisfaction is extremely damaging to students. She argues that this causes students to think that success is the only way to gain approval from their parents. To support this claim, and her main claim that the culture of achievement has created and extremely depressed group of teens, she uses heart wrenching anecdotes from students who suffered from achievement based depression. One such anecdote is of former student Taylor Chiu, who said that after an academically drowning semester that she wished "that someone had broken up with her, or that she was anorexic, or that she had some reason to explain to her parents why she felt so sad." and that  "She didn’t want to ask for a break, she said, because people would think she was lazy. “But having a mental disorder? That’s serious. People would listen to that.” It would be, she thought, like a man being held back from a fight: He would never have to admit he couldn’t win" (Rosin). Through including Taylor's anecdote, Rosin is able to aptly embody what goes through the minds of stressed students. Her inclusion of the last metaphor, relating Chiu's unwillingness to quit to a man being held back from a fight, especially encapsulates the mindset of students who believe there is literally no other option but success. 

Thus, Rosin adeptly shows parents how the values which they covet so much--studiousness, intelligence, overachievement--are making their kids absolutely miserable. Rosin's essay is heart breaking and revealing. After reading, it leaves the reader with a sense of bitter irony; that good intentions and dreams of the best success are what are slowly killing students. 

TOW #9: Visual Text

There have always been two definitive parties within American politics, whether it be federalists and antifederalists or democrats and republicans, there have always been parties representing two different sides of the political spectrum. However, in recent years it has been more common to see smaller more radical factions developing within the two larger fundamental parties. This is topic of seasoned political cartoonist for the Chicago Tribune Scott Stantis's September 2010 cartoon, The Tea Party. In this cartoon, aimed at the average American voter, Stantis uses juxtaposition to show how the Tea Party had become a large burden on the Republican party.
This visual text depicts a fiery young girl demanding that a large, seemingly bewildered elephant drink his tea at her tea party. However, on a deeper level, this humorous cartoon jabs at the American right wing political faction: The Tea Party. The elephant, the symbol of the GOP, represents the Republican Party. The little girl represents the Tea Party: a radically conservative (perhaps that is an oxymoron) faction of the Republican party. In this cartoon the Tea Party is depicted as having a comical control over the larger, yet scared, Republican party. Stantis shows this through his juxtaposition of the little girl and the large elephant. The large elephant would seemingly be stronger than the little girl, reflecting on how the Republican party should be stronger than the grass roots Tea Party. However, the little girl appears to be extremely loud and demanding, whereas the elephant is passive. This comparison of the small but verbose Tea Party to the powerful but easily cowed elephant shows how the Tea Party is able to control and hinder the Republican party despite its power. Thus, Stantis's comical juxtaposition effectively shows the absurdity of the fact that the small Tea Party is deeply and negatively affecting the larger Republican Party.

IRB Intro Post 2: War

For my second independent reading book I will be reading War by Sebastian Junger. This book was recommended to me by a fellow friend and classmate, who said that the book read like a narrative and was very fast paced, which are qualities I tend to look for in a book. The book, written by Sebastian Junger (Author of the famous book Into the Storm), focuses on the time Junger spent as a journalist in the Korengal Valley of Afghanistan with U.S. troops. It follows the American soldiers through their harrowing experiences, and shows war from an objective point of view. I was especially interested in this book after realizing it was the text that corresponded with the documentary Restrepo, one of the rawest and most moving documentaries I have ever seen. I am very much looking forward to reading this book, and am interested in seeing the un-romanticized and un-hollywood aspects of war.

TOW #8: IRB Please Kill Me (2/2)

The first half of the book Please Kill Me by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain focuses on the early roots of the Punk movement, as well as the burgeoning careers of many Punk symbols such as Iggy Pop and the Ramones. The second half of the book does the opposite: it focuses on the fall. While the book in its entirety is an amalgamation of the chaos that made up the Punk movement, the last half seemingly acts as the swan song to a movement that could never be maintained. McNeil and McCain artfully show--rather than tell--the labyrinthine odyssey of punk, drawing on their first hand experiences as pioneers in the movement: McNeil was the first to coin the term "Punk". They present the chronology of punk as a linear narrative not told by the authors themselves, but rather through first hand accounts from the punk symbols themselves in order to create a feeling that resembles that of a documentary. Through the use of these varied snippets of first hand accounts, McNeil and McCain are able to skillfully convey to the reader that the chaos that birthed the punk movement was also responsible for its death. As the first hand accounts of punk lead the reader down a path of sex, drugs, nihilism and insanity, the instability of those involved becomes evident. There was no unifying mantra or code amongst the vast and varied subgroups of punk, only a common sense of rebellion. This is expertly exemplified through the carefully chosen first hand account of Jeff Magnum, bassist of the band The Dead Boys. When recounting an extremely tumultuous encounter with law enforcement, he says "All I wanted to do was play the base real loud. I didn't want to hang out with these maniacs. Jesus what is this" (323). What prompted this outburst were the actions of bandmate Cheetah Chrome, who "threw a bunch of shit out a window and called the cops" (324) and said "'Come get me. I'm mental. Please come and get me'" (324). Magnum was further baffled by these actions, and said "I'm on mars. This can't be right. This can't be the way you're supposed to be in a band" (325). Through including this first hand account, McNeil and McCain show the chaos and disparity that plagued Punk bands. Magnum's description of his bandmate's crazed behavior and his obvious disapproval of it shows how the punk movement had no linearity, and that there was extreme polarization amongst those involved. Thus, McNeil and McCain showed how this polarization would crumble the punk movement as fast as it was built. McNeil and McCain's hands off approach to Please Kill Me in this way accurately epitomizes the rise and inevitable fall of punk culture.