Friday, March 14, 2014

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., March 17th.

22 comments:

  1. ​The element of humans' destruction and the reversal of the expected are shown through the short stories "The Silk and the Song"and "Random Sample" and the Twilight episode "Monsters Due on Maple Street". In the short story "The Silk and the Song", humans are held as captive domestic animals that provide transportation for an alien species called Hussirs. These extremely cruel master aliens control what the humans say, think, know, and even what they do. This complete reversal of roles surprises readers as they get an inside look at what it is like to root for the captive's freedom. Often,m it is portrayed that humanity is so xenophobic that it must enslave anything different than the norm. These Hussirs were smaller than humans but were able to enslave them. Maybe they possessed the same xenophobia that humans are said to have. In the story, all captive humans know a song that has been passed down (assumably) from generation to generation so that every human knows the song. The Wild Humans, the ones who escaped are were born into freedom, know the second verse to this song that no captive human has heard of and the it eventually helps the humans escape from the planet. One is left to wonder if the Hussirs knew the power of this song(especially the second verse) and restricted the captive humans the knowledge of the second verse for fear of revolution. The fear of humans and human revolution made the Hussirs cruel and secretive towards the humans. In the short story "Random Sample", a little nine-year-old girl explains her encounter with an alien race to a therapist. This girl provides an example of ignorant human destruction as she explains throughout her story of her encounter the joys of killing ants and playing tricks on those who will not give her candy. In her story of her encounter, the girl says that she was mad at the aliens because instead of paying attention to her, they tended to a burned squirrel who was hurt during their spaceship landing. Because of her anger toward them, she hurt the aliens when they tested her intelligence and excitedly showed them how to stomp on and burn ants. This girl exhibited to the aliens that humanity was destructive( even though she was only playing a joke on the aliens) so the aliens deemed humanity unworthy to live and burned them like she burned the ants. In the episode of Twilight titled "Monsters Due on Maple Street", the humans that are supposedly under attack by aliens provide an example of how xenophobia can often turn into violence through human paranoia. In the video, Charlie states, "It's like the Dark Ages or something" when referring to the lack of electricity. In reality, the people's response in this episode was more related to the Dark Ages than the lack of electricity. The Dark Ages held a lot of fear of the unknown and hypocrisy, both of which were clearly seen on Maple Street. The people on Maple Street were so willing to point fingers and attack others but expect others to not attack them. Through their attack on others, the people of Maple Street demonstrated that humanity can be destructive when xenophobia is present.

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  2. I think that it truly makes us question our species. Humans generally have species nationalism so authors who take the concept of humans being superior and go the opposite direction normally get rejected. However, when they don't get rejected they truly make humanity reconsider it's place in the cosmos which is what I think Xenophobia is all about





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  3. I believe that the subjugation of humans in Planet of the Apes and The Silk and the Song allows us to see our own faults and follies reflected in alien and animal races. I believe that when we view this type of material or read this type of text, we are made painfully aware of the fact that we may see parts of ourselves in the more oppressive characters - we may be forced to recognize that the way that we act and treat others is despotic and unjust, unfair and downright cruel. In both stories, humans are referred to as beasts or they are spoken of as though they are of lesser intelligence. They are treated with disrespect and cruelty, and viewed as lesser beings. In this we may see ourselves casually throwing around slurs and bigoted language, and we may become inclined to evaluate our past actions in order to alter our future ones. We are not inherently xenophobic, and it can be cured with a change of perspective. In this instance, the new perspective is from that of the disrespected and dehumanized race instead of the quote on quote "superior" race.

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  4. The thematic elements make us contemplate and wrestle with the idea of xenophobia because it's not just in relation to racial stance, but also species. We think of xenophobia as us being afraid of something foreign, but when it is displayed in such ways as in the planet of the apes it creates a greater fear of being inferior. That we we not intelligent enough to control a society enough to fight off being overruled. Planet of the Apes is a lot like the story The Silk and the Song because of the position that they display humans in. The Hussirs thought of the humans to be less than them so that used and abused them. In the film, however, they found no use for humans besides being experimental toys. I believe in all the stories it makes us think about whether it's really that we are afraid of other creatures or if it's that we are just afraid of being beneath them.

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  5. When it comes to xenophobia, reversal of expectations, and human destruction, they all go hand in hand during sci-fye stories. Just like in "Planet of the Apes," during "Monsters on Maple Street," the humans fear one another for what they might have and end up killing each other, just like the apes had predicted. Humans were suppose to be the smart, reasoning ones, but instead resort to insanity and go mad with killing. In "Silk in the Song," the role reversal seems to be not only obvious, but takes the part of the entire story. The humans become like animals to the native aliens on the planet their forefathers arrived at, become like horses to the Hussirs. The concept of xenophobia appears with the captured humans fearing the wild ones, even when the wild ones come to free them. With every story, there could be a connection to one of these aspects to the story, which I believe is just a common and clever way to make sci-fye more creative and exciting to read.

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  6. it makes us wrestle with the thought that the fear of the unknown isn't the only meaning to xenophobia. These story's try to makes us understand the multiple meanings of xenophobia. In most of the story's the humans are kept as domesticated animals. Or shot and killed for being wild animals. But the story's all connect with the definition of xenophobia. Witch I personally think is the Fear of what you can't control. In these story's the humans cant control there fates as either animals or for being destructive.

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  7. The idea of xenophobia is illuminated through the basic elements of human destruction, role reversal, and superiority. The fear of the unknown leads to humanity's vulnerability to fall into a false sense of superiority. In our modern society, we grow up believing we are the most advanced and intelligent, but in short stories like "The Silk and the Song", humans are depicted as inferior. Humans are ruled by Hussirs and walk around naked with bridle-helmets and uncomfortable saddles. This idea is difficult for us to grapple with because it alludes a sense of inferiority. It is perplexing to see our race struggle and be judged from another perspective, like in Random Sample (when the rather stubborn girl creates a poor impression for all of man kind). Perhaps this reveals our most innate characteristics can be rather ugly. And even though we tend to judge others for their worth and abilities, it is not often that we take a step back and look at ourselves through the same lens. Maybe that is what the true idea of xenophobia is trying to get across; fear can either lead us towards greater progress or hinder our ability to be open minded.

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  8. The thematic elements that are presented in Planet Of The Apes that challenge the fear of xenophobia is that xenophobia isn't real because it displays the theory that people that are in charge or the leaders actually know the truth that some people are slowly discovering through scientific evidence but the people in charge aren't letting them display or tell any other people about their findings.

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  9. The thematic elements in all the stories and movies we have seen make us think could a potentially higher advanced race like in Silk and the Song take over our world to use us as prey for hunting or slaves to do their bidding? This represents xenophobia because we are unsure of the future that we would like to know like if a higher race was hidden to us in a form a common creature such as the burro in Puppet Show where the burro is secretly the higher race but no one pays attention to him they only pay attention to the alien creature and the man.

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  10. The idea of xenophobia presented in "Planet of the Apes" is more of a fear of what could happen rather than the unknown. "Beware the beast man, for he is the Devil's pawn. Alone among God's primates, he kills for sport, or lust, or greed. Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him; drive him back into his jungle lair, for he is the harbinger of death." There is a fear of man destroying the apes' society rather than a fear of man because he is unknown. All knew what man would do, it was just a matter of time.

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  11. In the silk and the song humans are portrayed as domestic animals and transport the more civilized Hussirs. The hussirs are in complete control of the humans, it is almost like humans and horses today minus the fact that horses are not as intellectual as humans in the real world. The role reversal in planet of the apes is just like that of the silk and the song, humans being the domesticated 'animal' and the apes being the more civilized intellectual, or so they thought. This concept of xenophobia, or the fear of the unknown, is present throughout Planet of the Apes and the Silk and the Song, as the humans in both are fearful of what may lie ahead of them.

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  12. In The Planet Of The Apes, there are certain elements like humans’ destruction, reversal of the expected, inferiority, that we see in all xenophobia science fiction stories. When we as humans see something foreign there is a whisper of fear, and then soon, it develops into full blown xenophobia. We’re so afraid of the unusual object, we let fear consume us, and devour all rational thought. When we watched the Twilight Zone episode, we saw that the fear can lead to destruction, anarchy, total chaos that can easily bring down a community. In Puppet Show the Colonel talked to the human puppet that was Dade Grant, and was so glad that the “master race” was human, so pleased with the superiority of his race, unfortunately the story cut off before it was shown how the Colonel reacted to the burro being the puppet master. All of the xenophobic story elements are a product of fear, it causes human destruction, humans to be weaker and easily domesticated, and humans treating others as lessors.

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  13. In "Planet of the Apes" the movie makes us contemplate and wrestle with the concept of xenophobia by apes taking over humans and basically the whole world. The story, "The Silk and the Song" pertains to this movie because in their world, the Hussirs take over the human race and make the humans their animals. In the "Planet of the Apes" when the monkeys take in the humans to their lab, they say how they wish they would be washed before they came into the lab because of how bad they smell. Usually, humans would be saying that about animals but we are used to them smelling bad so we don't really expect anything different.

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  14. In my opinion the idea that apes rule humans and humans are nothing more than animals displays xenophobia the fear of the unknown, the reason I believe this is because people have the fear of something smarter and more advanced taking control of humans and our society. In planet of the apes this has happened the apes took control of our world and the humans are treated as apes and they are believed not to be able to talk, so we were inferior every way. In the story Puppet Show by Fredric Brown he uses examples of xenophobia in his very first lines to keep the reader engaged and interested, “HORROR CAME TO CHERRYBELL at a little after noon on a blistering hot day in August.” (Puppet Show Fredric Brown Pg1) The author is depicting horror coming to the town of Cherrybell and the reader doesn’t quite know what to be scared of yet. So these are examples that bring xenophobia to life and science fiction stories do the best with this style of writing.

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  15. "Planet of the Apes" has shown the destruction of humans in numerous ways. One example is when Dr. Zaius excavates into the cave and finds the evidence of human life, and destroys it all. Blows it all away. Which makes me think about how if he were to destroy all the evidence why does he continue to do so hiding all evidence away from his own people. There is still the fear of the unknown and how the scientist keep researching and doing surgeries on the humans. I also didn't understand how Dr. Zaius knows there was human life before themselves, but how do the present day humans in that movie not remember about the past life human life? More thought about the unknown in their past and even their future as well.

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  16. The thematic elements presented in The Planet Of The Apes movie make us contemplate and wrestle with the concept of xenophobia by whether not separating from what we know and what we don't particularly know. In The Planet Of The Apes movie we see how they separate the humans and apes from the intellectual level and it is a deep discussion throughout the whole movie whether or not that is justifiably right or not. I believe that it doesnt pertain to other science fiction stories because we really didn't read any other stories that seperated two intellectual groups.

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  17. The thematic elements of Planet of the Apes helps us to discover how intolerant we can be of others and foreign concepts. The movie serves as a perfect commentary for humans and how we treat each other especially, those who aren't like us are treated like an entirely different species, which is most obvious in the film through the portrayal of the humans. Another way the film deals with the concept of xenophobia is the reaction of the head orangutan when he sees that Taylor had written something in the dirt, and brushes it away. He is fearful to admit that there is a possibility that humans are capable of far more than he thought and therefore continues to repress Taylor and deny any of the stories that he tells the apes. The Planet of the Apes film relates quite well to Muse in that when humans, or even apes, encounter something that they fear, they react violently as a means of self preservation. This violent reaction can be noted in muse when Len is beat by his father and Icky is killed, "when he had dealt the punishment he thought I deserved, he and his accomplice rolled me over, pinned me on my stomach, and worried up my coat and shirt until they had uncovered Icky," (301). The violent reaction is incredibly similar to the Apes treatment of Taylor. Xenophobia causes us to immediately feel in danger because of our unfamiliarity with a subject and resort to violence as a means of protecting our self.

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  18. Throughout science fiction themes such as reversal of expectation and human destruction are present. The in Planet of the Apes the plot twist ending caught the audience by surprise. The film made whomever was watching believe that the main characters were on a distant planet thousands of years in the future. While the time frame was correct, in reality the men circle their own planet and landed near where they had took off. The story The Silk and the Song was extremely similar to Planet of the Apes. Humans were treated as animals, kept in pens, and ridden like horses. The Hussirs who owned them did not look like humans but their desire for control was similar to our own. In both Planet of the Apes and The Silk and the Song humans were no longer in control of Earth, although they were still present, they were treated like animals. Unlike these two stories, humans are whipped out in King of Beasts and Random Sample. In King of Beasts humans are introduced as vicious, genocidal, evil beasts that have died out. This beast is so evil that a scientist had to have special permission to meddle with it’s genetics in fear of what man could do if brought back. Random Sample showed gave another example of how while some humans are kind, there are some mean ones out there are well. Someones opinion of mankind can be based off of these few. In the end, the man was destroyed as aliens decided they were unfit to live any longer. Their decision was based off of one mean little girl.

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  19. I believe that in most of these stories it shows that with role reversal such as humans being pets, animals, or dangerous to other species xenophobia is most present. In Planet of the Apes humans are seen as animals while apes and orangutans are seen as civil and logical. In "The Silk and Song" we are like cattle or livestock. We can be thrown away easily reproduced whenever and treated like were worthless. Wild humans are afraid for what they can't see into the future. They don't know if they will ever truly be free or if they will be captured and killed in the near future.

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  20. I believe that the idea of human destruction is shown very well in the stories of “Planet of the Apes”, “Random Sample”, “Muse”, and “Monsters Are Due On Maple Street.” In “Planet of the Apes” we destroyed Earth, according to Dr. Zaius, in “Random Sample” the kids were destroying the ants which they felt were an inferior race, in “Muse” The father beat down his own son out of fear of what he had or would become with the use of ‘Icky,’ And on “Monsters Are Due On Maple Street” Don Martin shot a neighbor who was returning to the neighborhood because he was afraid that he might be an ‘alien.’ The reversal of roles was really present in the stories “The Silk and the Song,” and “Planet of the Apes” because the humans are enslaved in each of these stories because the other race is fearful of what humanity might bring upon them.

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  21. Human destruction is rampant in most of these story's. Both planet of the apes and silk and the song tell of great human society's destroyed by there own hand. In random sample humans destroy the ants because they feel superior. I believe the "reverse" xenophobia in both silk and the song and planet of the apes make us really see xenophobia because we see how it affects a race of people. Humans are stubborn and when you write about another race enslaved the reader brushes it off as fantasy because that's what it is. But i think the reader (or viewer) can really grasp the concept of xenophobia when they can put themselves in the position of the enslaved mysterious race.

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  22. I believe that in most of these stories xenophobia is most present. In Planet of the Apes humans are seen as animals while apes and orangutans are seen as civil and logical. In "The Silk and song" humans are treated terribly as if they are some sort of cattle.

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