Third Writing Assignment

Directions:  Choose one of the following three topics and write a three to five body section (meaning that each of the parts of your argument may contain more than one paragraph) essay addressing that topic.  You may use external research; in fact you are encouraged to do so.  However, you must properly cite those sources both in the text and in a bibliography or works cited page.  Be certain to fully address the question and all of its components.  Be sure that you have completely developed your argument, remember, I cannot read your mind.  Don't be afraid to take a stance that you might think I would disagree with; it's the quality of the argument that matters.  If you need a refresher on the three to five body paragraph/section essay form, go back to the comics course page and scroll down.  There you'll find a "writing primer."  Work through it and it will refresh those skills.  For more information on succeed on this type of essay click here to listen to a podcast.

1.        Aesthetic Violence is the name of a school of thought which argues that violent acts, and the results of those acts can be portrayed as communicative, even artistic, acts created for an audience to appreciate and from which to derive meaning.  This is clearly seen in The Batman/Judge Dredd Files, when Judge Death, while impaling two bouncers, screams, “I am the artist SSSUPREEEME!”(p.48). Were Grant & Morrison, et. al., and Garth Ennis in Preacher, using aesthetic violence (in this and in other instances throughout the book) as a form of social satire or are they using this form of communication simply as a form of Aristotelian dramatic spectacle?

2.        PostModernism is a school of thought that, at its core, argues that as society advances through the different orders of simulacra that the individual becomes less and less important than the data the individual produces.  That data, or responses, allow those who own the data, to create a “hyper-reality” a world that is more real than “reality.”  Grant Morrison’s We3 shows us a world where hyper-reality has taken over the masses; yet there are some who are intelligent and willful enough to fight against the machine.  If you agree with this statement, simply find three concrete examples from the book which support this notion.  If you disagree, do just the opposite.  Either way, you’ll need to do a bit of research on PostModernism.

3.        If you can remember that far back, both Freud and Jung spoke of the power of the Unconscious (or subconscious) to provide the writer/artist with profound symbols of either a shared collective memory or of our repressed desires.  In Death:  The High Cost of Living, Neal Gaiman writes the story of Death, an anthropomorphized version of the human folklore, concepts concerning, and fear of death.  In this case, Death is a “goth” twenty-something who always seems slightly sad as she comes to recover the souls of the newly dead.  Death’s world, even when she gets to visit Earth as a human for one day a year, is filled with symbols that resonate to our very subconscious (or unsconscious) mind.  For this question, who was more correct, in your view:  Freud or Jung on matters dealing with the un(sub)conscious?  Then proved this to me using symbols you’ve found in Death: THCoL.  Looks as if a tad bit of research is in order for this one as well.

Have fun.  This is due, at the latest, with your portfolio on Monday, December 10, no later than 5:00 pm in CTM 105.