Friday, October 25, 2013

Burros? Icky? Apes? Maple Street? Monsters?

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. Respond to this blog by 2:30p.m. on Mon., Oct. 28th.

27 comments:

  1. The concepts in planet of the apes force us to think about xenophobia in different ways than puppet show. It relates to the silk and the song, but in a rather different way. The silk and the song features humans as just slaves, where the humans in the planet of the apes are hunted and considered to be savage, as they once were simple house pets. Puppet show forces us to contemplate if the master race of the universe was humanoid and how we would respond to that

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  2. The concepts presented in the movie Planet of the Apes makes me think a lot about the power of knowledge and whether it is positive or negative. I believe in some situations knowledge is power and in other situations ignorance is bliss. I think this is a major theme in Science Fiction and is present in every story we've read.

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  3. The film "The Planet of the Apes" makes us contemplate xenophobia because it reverses the roles of apes and humans in society; apes keep humans in cages and treat them as science experiments and beasts of burden while the apes go and live lives similar to humans. When a human that can talk and reason like the apes is introduced into the society, it makes the leaders freak out. The same would happen if we were to find an ape who could talk and reason like we can, the news and media would be all over it. The introduction of creatures that are as smart as humans, and in a lot of cases smarter, is a very common theme in science fiction stories, like "The Puppet Show" and "Muse". In these stories and others, humans are confronted with a species that can reason, think, and have emotions that are very similar to ours; it shows how we would react to the realization that something completely foreign to us is on the same intellectual level as we are, and possibly an even greater level.

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  4. The Planet Of The Apes was definitely difficult to take in. Humans, I think, are so used to being the powerful ones so, even while watching it, we had a hard time dealing with it. The Planet Of The Apes brought on the thought that we can be overtaken and brought down to a lower level and it showed how we would typically respond to that. Taylor was very brutal and violent when he realized he had little to no power where he was so in order to get what he wanted, he used brute force and weapons. We don't respond well to power that isn't ours. Although the apes weren't as violent, they were still much like humans. Due to the fear of Taylor, they refused to believe anything he or any of his supporters had to say. It's much like xenophobia and how when we're afraid of something, we do not listen to it and instead, attack with violence.

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  5. In the Planet of the apes we see how scared the apes are of their own ancestors. Fear runs so deep in society that they demonize the other kind for being different even when some of them know they are distant relatives. We also see this happen with icky because everyone is afraid of the slugs except for those who have come in contact with them a learned who they are and what they can do. People or apes in society always look for one thing to demonize because they are scared of the unknown.

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  6. Some concepts like inferiority and ignorance in Planet of The Apes gives you a different perspective on xenophobia and relation to the fear of foreign beings, in Planet of the Apes it relates more to the fear of a foreign concept, that humans are intelligent beings. This idea of superiority and higher rank in society plays a big role through most stories that we've read, and resulting in extermination or discrimination for the foreign object or concept.

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  7. In planet of the apes xenophobia is shown when the apes figure out that Taylor can talk this really freaks them out because they are not used to it but xenophobia is shown again when Taylor and his ship mates first appear on earth and they see that the apes have taken over earth. This probably really scared them because they think of apes as wild animals and to see them in charge is a very bizarre thing.

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  8. In the Planet Of The Apes, the Apes fear the fact of their society knowing of the humans past and that the Ape derived from man because the humans were clouded by their judgement and emotion which destroyed the human race and left a few slaved to the Ape.

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  9. The thematic elements presented in The Planet Of The Apes movie make us contemplate and wrestle with the concept of xenophobia because it showed how a species discriminated against another out of fear of the unknown about them. This movie does pertain to other Science Fiction stories we have read like "The Silk and The Song". They both talk about how the human civilization and fell and another species took over.

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  10. Parker Lacy
    Xenophobia in Planet of the Apes is very noticeable. Everyone fears not having total control in their lives. With the apes taking over, the humans aren't in total control. It makes us fear that something like that could happen in real life. It pertains to science fiction stories that have a certain charter that causes humans to fear everything. "I'm a seeker too. But my dreams aren't like yours. I can't help thinking that somewhere in the universe there has to be something better than man. Has to be" This just show's from the point of view of the apes and their thoughts towards the humans.

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  11. Planet of the Apes was a different kind of xenophobia because instead of introducing some new life form like puppet show or frankenstein for humans to fear, this movie showed humans as illiterate animals that were breeded by monkeys. Instead of humans being challenged by other powerful forces like aliens, the entire human race was already overpowered by monkeys that were far more advanced than the humans. This type of xenophobia is different than most stories we have read because it seems the humans in this movie have no chance of winning/overcoming the main problem in the story. The monkeys are corrupted by wise orangatangs who possess too much power for this civilization to control or do anything about, so no changes will occur.

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  12. On this subject including Burros, Icky, Apes, Maple Street, and Monsters, there has been a lot of xenophobia. Icky was disgusting the the boys father. The father thought is was gross, weird, and stupid. The father didn't realize that Icky was the boys talent. In Maple Street everyone was scared of a monster that could be upon them, because they think they are scary, and evil. When they went against anyone that could be different that's when I realized how much xenophobia was in their. Planet of the Apes, gives me a visual, that when something different comes into your life you might be scared or not want to except it. This subject was interesting, because I did not know how much xenophobia their was in the world today.

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  13. I believe that these thematic elements make us contemplate the concept of xenophobia because we are so caught up being xenophobic of one another that we don't take time to look inward. The humans were dubbed the harbingers of death, in the Planet of the Apes movie, because they waged war on one another, but in the process destroyed themselves, and turned their planet into a hostile desert. The entire movie showed the atrocities that the Apes were committing, and demonized them as tyrannical and brutal. The end of the movie however, showed the ugly side of the human race and that the Apes were actually xenophobic of us because we destroyed ourselves along with half the planet.

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  14. While watching Planet of the Apes our minds were bent around the idea that man was inferior to the ape civilization and society was turned upside down. The concept of xenophobia is represented in this movie as man's self destructive tenancies; the world was obliterated with nuclear weapons that completely eradicated the smart human civilization and left an uneducated human civilization behind. I could compare this to the same concept as learned in the story "Silk and the Song" where alien lifeforms named "Hussirs" rule humans and treat them like pets/animals.
    -Matt Myers

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  15. In planet of the apes the concept of xenephobia shows threw i think the most obviouse. it shows the hate of race thats diffrent from the norm, one just as intellegent. first time you see it in this film is when they are coraled up as wild humans. the next part i saw it is when Taylor finally speaks he says " get your paws off me you filthy ap." that shows that he disrespects the culture hes not familiar with.

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  16. Planet Of The Apes was interesting and thought provoking. It was a great example of xenophobia and challenged typical society and humanity. It makes us think because the film puts humans in a position of inferiority who are subject to what we perceive to be animals. It made me think about how humans are kind of naturally superior to other animals and unfortunately, sometimes other humans. This judgment comes from a sense of uncertainty when we deal with beings that are not similar to ourselves. It is similar to the short story, The Silk and The Song that we read in class. Both the film and the story challenged the position that humans typically hold in society. They also illustrate how humans are more prone to violence and suggest that freedom and equality are important.

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  17. In The Planet of the Apes, we see that humanity is destroyed, and that a species that was once lower than us rise up. Just this part makes us humans struggle, because we want to be smarter than all the other species. As humans we are always striving to get better, to expand our knowledge, we see how their knowledge could have led to there downfall. The can send men into space for thousands of years, but we destroyed ourselves. Planet of the Apes, was different from all the stories we read/watched, but they had many similar main ideas, like humans being enslaved, but was overall on a level of its own.

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  18. The element of humans vs. humans plays a major role in "The Planet Of The Apes" because it creates a fear towards other humans (mute humans) that aren't "average" to us modern day humans. Another example that is presented in the movie that shows xenophobia is when the species of apes deny any human life forms because they could speak and have a mind of their own. This was presented when the apes took out the brain of the human's friend, so this shows they fear humans prevailing and want to fear humans because they could possibly succeed in the world. The Science Fiction novel, "The Silk and The Song", relates back to this thematic idea of humans vs. humans because the tamed humans would fear and attack the Wild humans because the way they dressed, and they way the Hussirs perceived them to their humans.

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  19. Tajalik Davis
    Hour 1

    The thematic elements that are shown in The Planet of the Apes make us understand xenophobia by using evolution and the things we have learned in school. The movie shows how the human race is not the most intelligent, but the most dangerous. “The Silk and the Song” also shows how dangerous the human race is in the eyes of the “antagonist”. “Wiln gave him another lash with the whip. “You should know humans are not allowed to run loose near the star tower,” Wiln snapped. “Now go back to your master and tell him to whip you.””Both plots are based on the fear of humans and how domesticating them and treating them like dumb animals will be for the greater good.

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  20. The thematic elements in The Planet Of The Apes relate to xenophobia directly because the situation presented is very different and difficult. The Planet of the Apes movie was similar to The Silk and the Song because they both had the element of humans being the inferior species. In the Silk and The Song, the Hussir’s controlled humans and they were made slaves. In the movie, humans were just kept like animals in a zoo. Both were successful in leading us to contemplate and apply the concept of xenophobia through some similar and some different ways.

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  21. The Planet of the Apes film exemplifies xenophobia in the way that the role of human and animal are reversed. Humans, before discovering this new “alien planet” which they believe they crash landed on, later finding out that it was or is their home, discover that apes are on top now and these primitive looking humans are treated almost like the animals, held as property, in zoos, and things that look like museums, as well as being hunted for sport. This correlates with the Silk and the Song reading in the way that human race, as told by the wild humans, believe at some point and time they were the dominant species, and are now being used as pets and “beasts of burden”, and the humans all belong to these hussirs, of a distant alien race. It is a crazy idea to think of humans as the “bottom of the food chain”, and xenophobia makes us question how humans could be almost put in our place by a distant species, and what life could be like for us if we were not on top.

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  22. In most of the stories the humans and the aliens (or other “different” beings) have been switched. By this I mean that their roles have been reversed, the humans are the inferior creatures and the other being is the superior creature. As an example we can use the reading piece “Silk and the Song”. “ ‘All right, the human is rather big for its age,’ surrendered Wiln. ‘You may ride it if you promise not to run it. I don’t want you breaking the wind of any of my prize stock.’ So Blik strapped the bridle-helmet with the handgrips on Alan’s head and threw the saddle-chair on Alan’s shoulders. ” Mostly in the reading pieces the humans can be feared too, as they are strong. Yet, the other beings are superior to the humans. This is a scary concept as humans have always been the superior beings. Is it really possible for humans to reverse rolls with another type of being?

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  23. In Planet of the Apes xenophobia is presented when everyone in the "new planet" were afraid of the men who landed there. In a certain way, the orangutan was afraid for his workers to find out that the planet they live in was inhabited by the people they were trapping. This fright of being seen different from society is shaped in all the other stories/films because they all demonstrated their reactions towards the other creature. Also, in the story Puppet Show when the people were “Not being a real member of his species to make first contact because they have phobia of their own”, they were being dragged the way the people surrounding them wanted them to be like. They were afraid to be different, to be unique.

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  24. Role reversal and human’s superiority complex makes the viewer wrestle with the concept of xenophobia by shifting our perceptions, causing us to engage in concepts and topics that all functional societies are forced to debate. “Puppet Show”, in regards to reversal of the expected and inferiority, is similar to “The Planet of the Apes”. Or relief when we thought humans truly are the “master race”, demonstrates our need for control over the inferior, mainly the control is to conceal their potential and opportunities to over power. This story also plants the idea of xenophobia being curable, it hints that xenophobia isn’t a disease, but a personality flaw that leads to xenophobic feelings.

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  25. I think that the planet of the Apes really does make you think a lot about our own societal tendencies. It obviously critiques a huge part of our society but it also makes a poignant argument against our historical Xenophobic tendencies. It makes you reconsider what we assume to be very obviously unrefutable things.

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  26. The movie really showed flaws in our society, but through the society of the apes. Everything is reversed in the movie with apes and humans. The humans are looked at as dangerous, and untamed just as apes and all animals are in our society. It really challenges one to think about how the illuminati rules everything in the world.

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  27. In "Planet of the Apes" the expected is reversed many ways. The expected is reversed in major way in how Earth is now a planet, of Apes. Apes reign supreme instead of humans which is far from the expected. This relates to how "Monsters on Maple Street" is far from the expected. The citizens expect everything to work in their houses and for nothing different to happen. This is quite to opposite during the story, all the power turns off and a meteorite flys and crashes too.

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