My Dog Freud

In his text, "Beyond the Pleasure Principle," Freud discusses repetitive behavior that leads to various neuroses in adults. As an example, he describes a child's simple game in which he repeatedly throws a toy out of sight, exclaims that the toy is "gone," then retrieves the toy and exclaims, "there," thus mimicking the feelings he has when separated from his mother.

For some unexplainable reason, this reminded me of an episode of Cesar Millan's "Dog Whisperer." In the episode, a woman is having trouble with her dog barking incessantly whenever she leaves her apartment, and is therefore driving her neighbors crazy with the constant noise. The dog obviously suffered from the neurosis that his owner would never return after leaving him home alone, even though she inevitably, always returned home. In order to fix the problem, Cesar had the owner leave the apartment for short spans of time, starting with only 10 minutes, so that the dog would learn that even if his owner left, she would always return. Of course, Cesar was correct and the dog eventually overcame his neurosis.

So using, Freud's example, maybe dogs aren't as human like as many choose think of them. Perhaps if the dog had the mental ability to devise a game like that of the child in Freud's example, he would have been able to overcome his neurosis about being left at home alone, and like the child, could have dealt with those feelings on a smaller level, thus allowing him to deal with the real situation more effectively. However, if the dog had those childlike capabilities, how would Cesar Millan make his millions?

My Favorite Myth

From what I understand, Levi-Strauss believes in the idea that no matter how outrageous a myth may seem, when looking at myth examples from around the world, the fact is that they all follow specific structures. This reminded me of my favorite type of myth, the fairy tale. When looking at fairy tale structure, they too follow a similar structure to that of ancient myths. For example, there are always characters that are either very good or very bad, characters that are very powerful or very weak, magical or god-like intervention, and are set in places that are similar, it not exactly like the world we mere humans inhabit.

Take the example of "Cinderella". Whether known by this name or another, it is a fairy tale that is found worldwide. Perhaps the reason is that it has traveled orally from one country to another, morphing and changing small details along the way to better fit each new country's culture. But then again, perhaps as Levi-Strauss suggests, it is also a myth that evolved out of humans' natural story-telling habits. Quite simply, "Cinderella" is the story of a very good girl, who does everything she is told, until one day, through magical intervention, she finds her prince, who is her reward for her life-long good behavior. The story is also the bane of many feminists because it seems to teach girls to sit back, do what you're told, clean the house, and wait for your "prince" to find you. However, it Levi-Strauss is correct, maybe this story simply represents humans' natural story-telling structure. Perhaps the story isn't at all anti-feminists, but rather, a representation of natural female thoughts, hopes, and dreams.

Religious Experience or Excuse to Party?

In reviewing Bakhtin and the carnival, I couldn’t help but think back to my undergraduate days when I lived in Jerusalem, Israel. Now despite growing up in the Jewish religion, I don’t claim to be an expert on the Jewish faith or practices, nor on Israeli culture. However, based on my understanding of the carnival, I think Bakhtin would be able to see the carnival in my Israeli Purim experience.
Purim is a holiday devoted to yet another time in history when the Jews were forced to overcome some “evil-doer” that was looking to annihilate them, in this case, Haman. Traditionally, this holiday is celebrated with the reading of the Book of Esther from the Torah, followed by a celebratory meal filled with costumes, wine, and hamantaschen (triangular cookies filled with jam). As a child, this included a small carnival where I frequently went home with a goldfish in a bag.
However, my Israeli experience was truly carnivalesque. The evening did begin with a reading of the Book of Esther, at a Reformed (most liberal and relaxed) synagogue. Then the true party began. My friends and I decided to attend the “hottest” party in town, which of course, was thrown by Chabad, the absolute most religious group in town. For a mere 10 shekels ($3), we were encouraged to drink as much as possible, to the point where we couldn’t tell the difference between the “good” guy in the Purim story and the “bad” guy. Talk about carnivalesque, about celebrating the underside of tradition, the most religious group in town was literally pouring shots of vodka down the throats of non-religious American college students in the name of religion.

The Downfall of American Television vs. The Rise of English

“In the early 1920s it was desperately unclear why English was worth studying at all; by the early 1930s it had become a question of why it was worth wasting your time on anything else.” -Terry Eagleton

I couldn’t help but compare this particular reading about the “Rise of English” to my earlier thoughts on the “Rise of Reality TV”. Just as the Victorian academic community fought the rise of this branch of study, so too has the elitist population in the United States fought the rise of reality television. I feel as though America’s current elitist academic population has the same feelings towards reality TV as did the Victorian elitist population in England. For example, as Eagleton mentions, “If one were asked to provide a single explanation for the growth of English studies in the later nineteenth century, one could do worse than reply ‘the failure of religion.’” As he continues, “This was particularly worrying for the Victorian ruling class, because religion is for all kinds of reasons an extremely effective form of ideological control.”
Take for example when Kathy Griffin won the Emmy for Best Reality Show. In her speech, she famously declared, “Suck it Jesus, this award is my god now.” See the entire clip below (I hope). . .
The religious community in the United States was livid over her comments. How dare she declare an inanimate object, won for being the star of a crass cable channel reality show about her life, as more important than Jesus? Just as the Victorians worried that the rise of English literature was demonstrating the downfall of religion, modern Americans must also have thought that reality TV was demonstrating the downfall, yet again, of modern religion. The rise of English literature over English Literature must have horrified the elitist members of Victorian society. What if this crass, low-brow writing became more popular and more enduring than past serious, high-minded essays? Just as today’s elitists fear, what if reality Television becomes Reality television? Perhaps one day students will be sitting down in classes to analyze the importance of “Jersey Shore” and “America’s Top Model’s” effect on society and how to model future television shows on their structures. Perhaps one day people will question whether there is any other type of television show to concern yourself with than reality TV.