Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Burros? Icky? Apes? Maple Street? Other?
How do the thematic elements(i.e.- humans' destruction, reversal of the expected, inferiority, etc...) presented in The Planet Of The Apes movie make us contemplate and wrestle with the concept of xenophobia? Does it pertain to any of the Science Fiction we have read? Use quotations from the movie and texts to support your claims. Post to this blog after for Mon., Oct. 31st.
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When watching "The Planet Of The Apes" I realized that people are more afraid of new and different things then I though. Even people in class i could tell had very weird feelings pertaining to the movie and how things came about in it. I know that it was weird watching the movie and watching Apes act like humans and humans like apes. It is hard not to act xenophobic around things like that. Even in all the other stories we read it is hard to to be a little uncomfortable but it really makes you realize how different things make people uncomfortable.
ReplyDeleteExcelent post !
ReplyDeleteIn "Planet of the Apes" the roles of humansand animals are reversed. THe humans are treated with little respect and are experimented on, which is how we treat animals today. I was very shocked when i saw this because it really makes you think about animals feelings, and how they see it. This movie relates to "The Silk and the Song" because in that short story the humans are captured by animals instead of humans catching animals. I often relate this concept to hunting, because of the hunting scene in "Planet of the Apes." The apes live by their leader and the sacred scrolls. It is considered unsacred to live by what you believe and not what the sacred scrolls. All in all, xenophobia is in every science fiction story and movie and it should really make you think about the big picture and not just your perspective.- Taylor
ReplyDeleteXENOPHOBIA IS PORTRAYED IN PLANET OF THE APES BECAUSE THE APES ARE REASONABLEY AFRAID OF THE HUMANS FOR THEIR ABILITY TO OVERTAKE THE APES, BUT THE HUMANS ARE AFRAID OF THE APES BECAUSE THEY DONT UNDERSTAND HOW THEY ARE WHAT THEY ARE OR HOW THEY TOOK CONTROL, AND BECAUSE THEY ARE TREATED LIKE DANGEROUS ANIMALS, ABUSED AND MISTREATED INTO SUBJECTION. xENEPHOBIA IS REALLY PUT IN SCIENCE FICTION WITH THE COMPLEXITY OF THE STORY. i FIT WERNT FOR THAT, SPACE TRAVEL, EXTRAPOLATION, AND THE FUTURE WOULD BE TOTALLY HAPPY BECAUSE WE WOULD STILL BE THE TOP OF THE FOOD CHAIN AND IN CONTROL OF OUR LIVES. PLANET OF THE APES SHOWS US THAT WE REALLY ARE AFRAID OF NOT BEING IN CONTROL.
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In Planet of the Apes, xenophobia is portrayed by everything is reversed; humans are treated as animals and the apes are treated like humans. As we watched the movie, a lot of us were kind of weirded out by the fact that everything was turned around. We didn't know how the apes were able to take over the world and have the humans be their slaves and experimental "rats." We are always weirded out when things are different from our daily lives. Usually, we judge and discriminate the things that we see that our different from us. Like with how caucasians look at african americans. They have a different color of skin then us, so they are different and lower than us. I don't believe that if something is different from us, we should look at them as "freaks," just because we are not use to different.
ReplyDelete-Jen O.
Victor
ReplyDeleteAfter all the works of literature we read and watched; It made me think about the reason why cvertain fear is shown to the unknown or strange. In my opinion its because they are unique therefore we dont know what they're are going to do next, not knowing any of there background or "normal behavior". Also, Xenophobia aftetr witnessing these short sories and planet of the apes made me think what dso others think about us, for example the Mddle Est Asia; we sterotype them and treat them differntly because there unique whats the other half of the story. Specfically "The Silk and the Song changed my thinking because of how the humans were took as slaves or captives just because were diiferent; everything has a very different outlook when we are the ones being persecuted; as opposed to being afillated with those people
The movie "Planet of the Apes" thematic use of inferiority brought into perspective how, as humans, we treat other creatures (and sometimes other humans) as inferior when in reality the other creature may be much more intelligent than they are given credit for. Where does this attitude come form? I believe it comes from the inability to except the fact that there could be someone better than me out there. Often times humans ask themselves "why should I change? That person is the weird one, they should change." In this way the other person becomes inferior. In "Planet of the Apes" the monkeys want to be rid of the inferior human who talks. They are scared of what he knows and what he could bring so the simplest solution is to dispose of him.
ReplyDeleteAfter watching "Planet of the Apes" I realized that there were some odd parts. It was very strange to see people acting like apes, and apes like people. This obviously scared many people, but it also leads one to think about how xenophobic they are. "Planet of the Apes" is a very severe example of what xenophobia can do, but if you stop and think about it you will realize that most people are at least a little xenophobic. The movie, along with the other stories that we have read in class have forced me to think differently than I previously did.
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ReplyDeleteAfter watching Planet of the Apes my mind really started to think about what would happen if this happened to us. I also thought how could this happen, because I believe we are not that afraid of foreigners so we would get to know them and that could be our downfall and we could be like Planet of the Apes. Also I think that from all the stories we have read we need to have a little bit of xenophobia because if we dont bad things could happen to us like beng slaves in the silk and the song as well as Planet of the Apes.
Bailey S-
ReplyDeleteAfter watching Planet of the Apes I think xenophobia really showed in the Apes. The apes wouldn't listen to the ideas that Taylor had to share and when we found out that Dr. Zauis knew about human inhabitable and also knew that humans were more developed then apes he burned the evidence and acted like he knew nothing of it. He was scared of the humans because they were different and he keep them inferior because he was scared. The apes fear ruled what happened to humans and what would be of them in the future. The movie and the stories we read made me think about how our fear ends up ruling our life and what can happen.
The Planet of the Apes makes us wrestle with the fact that this could happen to the human species. Through this story, the idea that humans lower themselves to the point of animal through self destruction scares people. Xenophobia is seen in the apes. Human's history of violence, cruelty, self-destructing habits, and war drives fear into the apes, pushing them to the extreme of slavery and hunting humans. The apes then drove humans to the level of animals; they can now be described as uninteligent, "human see, human do." The idea that humans have any thought is driven out and what's left is an animal. All of these things force us to wonder if we are on the same path as this fictional story. Are we leading ourselves to our own destruction? Th habits we created and are told are good are challenged here and we are asked the question, "Is the life I am living slowly destroying all that we hold dear?" -Eli B.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first used to watch Planet of the Apes, I laughed at it because I figured that it was just a movie; now that I am older with the concept of Xenophobia to think about; it really changes the way I look at any Sci-Fi movie really. This movie, The Silk and Song and one of the short stories all related to the fact that a creature is inferior and man is what creature is/was. Think about how they all are similar it gets you think about how that could happen. Because in most of these stories/movies it talks about what happens when humans revolt or become 'smarter' and how they get out of that situation, but it never really tells you how it transit from humans being inferior to humans being the 'lowest creature.' It makes us think how we can prevent that from happening as well as new Sci-Fi stories/ movies.
ReplyDeleteWatching Planet of the Apes is a lot like having breakfast for dinner, the roles of humans and apes reversed. In planet of the apes the apes acted like humans and the humans were treated like apes, this xenophobic idea is also showed in Silk and Song. In Silk in Song the humans are treated like horses or animals, being held in pens, having mating seasons, and being owned by another race. I think that these kind of movies/stories are very interesting cause it throws you into a ocean you have never been in before and you are surprised at how different it is. Its a little creepy
ReplyDeleteOne xenophobic element seen in both Planet of the Apes and The Silk and the Song is a reversal of roles in society. As we the readers are humans, the idea of being under animals is a bit unsettling. Additionally, in every xenophobia story we have read, those who are lower in societal status cause their counterparts to feel fear as revolts are imminent. To branch off of this, inferiority is a specific concept seen throughout the stories we have read. Nobody likes to be inferior and it causes fear to have an oppressive power over you. As mentioned above, though, the higher standing citizens also have reasons to be fearful. In the end, each society is scared of fellow citizens and what they are capable of.
ReplyDelete"Because to you I am a caricature of a human being, I am more horrible to you than a being who bears no remote resemblance to you" (Brown, 7). Generally speaking, we think of apes as unintelligent, animalistic brutes. To view them on the same intellectual level as human beings, make this movie's society all the more strange and ultimately alarming. Thus, concepts such as lack of understanding leading to rash and chaotic actions, human destruction resulting in man-kind's untimely fall, and rational thought being clouded by paranoia, pride, prejudice, and distrust, are all exhibited in the movie, as well as the xenophobic, science fiction stories we have read in class.
ReplyDeletei see that in the apes community,they view us as the animals and we view them as the humans.we connect all of these stories by xenophobia. the fear of foreigners scares people out of their skin and make them begin to wonder of will there ever be intruders or what will happen to the earth after everyone is gone, will animals rule, or will humans prevail?
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