Paper 4 Final - Grade: B+ PDF

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“The Myth of the Ant Queen”, Steven Johnson; “Great to Watch”, Maggie Nelson...

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Chen 1 Jiayuan Chen Professor Joshua Eaise Expository Writing Section KN Paper 4—Final Draft 04/15/2018

Image and Speech Overflow In today’s society, images and information are everywhere. People will see different images and hear disparate speeches about the same topic. With this phenomenon, people do not know which version is true and which of them can be trusted, thus make them become scared and confused. Also, “image and speech overflow” comes from self-organizing system without leaders and instructors, thus people cannot find one person to get the problems solved. In Steven Johnson’s “The Myth of the Ant Queen”, the author talks about how the ants unconsciously complete different duties every day, thus together create the ant colony. Furthermore, Johnson discusses that the Manchester City is built without awareness as well. There is no governments or city planners; people perform distinct jobs every day, and together constitutes this well-organized city called Manchester. However, problems also appear, such as polluted, chaotic, and overcrowded. In the essay “Great to Watch”, Maggie Nelson also writes about how “image and speech overflow” is created without people’s awareness. For example, people unconsciously start to enjoy reality TV shows about torturing other people. On the other hand, sometimes, these brutal images about the environment will make the cruel society even crueler. Thus, the phenomenon of “image and speech overflow” may lead to some unexpected consequences—the society becomes chaotic and disordered, and people are distracted. Moreover, the problem of “image and speech overflow” cannot be solved easily; since it is constituted without awareness and no one particular person is responsible for it.

Chen 2 First, since “image and speech overflow” is created without awareness, it is impossible to figure out how or why it happens to get the problem solved. As Nelson mentions, usually, people will think that they are not going to enjoy TV programs about torturing others; however, they do so. There is a reality television show called Unbreakable, “in which contestants undergo various forms of torture (including being water boarded, buried alive, or made to cross the Sahara Desert while wearing suffocating gas masks), and whose motto is ‘Pain Is Glory, Pain Is Pride, Pain Is Great to Watch’ ” (Nelson 301). Obviously, the television show is cruel for forcing people to be tortured. Surprisingly, there are people who enjoying watching it. Even just from the motto, it is clear that how inhuman the show is. “Pain Is Great to Watch” seems so ironic, for enjoying the process of other people going through painful experience. Perhaps people always believe that it is impossible for them to start enjoying seeing other people being abused, but this actually becomes true as more cruel reality TV shows appear. The same as how the Manchester City is built—these citizens have never thought of building a city, but they just do so. Johnson states, “This constitutes one of the great ironies of the Industrial Revolution, and it captures just how dramatic the rate of change really was; the city that most defined the future of urban life for the first half of the nineteenth century didn’t legally become a city until the great explosion had run its course” (196). Manchester has become an important “city” for a long time, but it does not officially become a city until 1853. This also stresses that unconscious behaviors are playing a significant role in people’s daily life. People move to Manchester and perform their jobs. With different people accomplishing different tasks, a city is built. People are even unaware of how Manchester has become a big city. No matter when exactly Manchester has become a city, it still leads the pattern of modern city. Similar to what Nelson writes, the whole process of enjoying seeing other people being tortured is happening unconsciously. They might be unaware about how and why they like the show; they just start watching it at

Chen 3 certain points. Therefore, both the Manchester City and the phenomenon of “image and speech overflow” are composed without awareness, thus it is hard to solve the problem and predict its outcomes. Also, “image and speech overflow” may lead to unexpected negative results. Nelson talks about how the reveal of brutal images can make the society even crueler. Nelson raises the question, “ ‘Is it possible for a photograph to change the world?’ But what could the answer to this question—be it in the negative or affirmative—really mean? ” (304). Nelson discusses about the actual consequence when these brutal images of people actually being abused become public. This may not bring positive effects. Since people can unconsciously start to enjoy cruel reality show, these images can lead to unexpected negative effects. People might not respond to the brutal images with positive sounds, but chaos and scare might appear. Similar to the Manchester City, after the city is built without awareness, negative influence also occur. Johnson describes the other side of the Manchester City, “Noisy, polluted, massively overcrowded, Manchester attracted a steady stream of intellectuals and public figures in the 1830s, traveling north to the industrial magnet in search of the modern world’s figure” (196). With more and more people coming to work at Manchester, the city becomes overcrowded and chaotic. Also, without city planners make everything in order, although the city can run normally, some problems cannot be solved properly. For example, nobody is in charge of the overcrowded and segregation problem. The chaos could become a serious problem if “images and speech are overflow” and make people feel unsecure and scared. For instance, if these brutal images of beating other people become public, people may respond negatively thus creates bigger mass. As Nelson mentions, “The fact that we ourselves have ample and wily reserves of malice, power-mongering, self-centeredness, fear, sadism, or simple meanness of spirit that we ourselves, our loved ones, our enemies, skillful preachers, politicians, and rhetoricians of all stripes can whip into a hysterical, destructive

Chen 4 forth at any given moment, if we allow for it” (301). The same for human beings, they all have their negative sides in their bodies. Sometimes, they will not be ashamed of their bad behaviors. Thus, the reveal of brutal images may not bring positive consequences. Moreover, once it brings out the negative sides of human beings, negative influences may occur. People will become confused and scared, thus the society will become more chaotic and crueler. Therefore, “image and speech overflow” may lead to unexpected negative results, just like how the Manchester City becomes overcrowded and chaotic. On the other hand, the chaos in the Manchester City, is also different from the unfairness or the “strange orders” that Nelson mentions, or the ant colony. In the ant colony, every ant performs different jobs automatically, not from the instructions of the ant queen. Johnson states, “Their genes instruct them to protect their mother, the same way their genes instruct them to forage for food. In other words, the matriarch doesn’t train her servants to protect her, evolution does” (194). The ants complete disparate duties every day because their genes tell them to do so. The duties are different—protecting the ant queen, looking for food, and carrying away the trash. However, all these ants follow their daily routines of their jobs, or work together with each other, and build this ant colony. As for Nelson, she thinks “images and speech overflow” creates some “strange orders” that oppose people’s original thinking. Nelson believes that it is unreasonable for some people being tortured, and others are enjoying them being tortured. During the Milgram experiment, people still deliver shocks to the recipients who answer the question wrong. Nelson states, “A smiling host and vociferous studio audience, rather than a taciturn guy in a lab coat (as was the case in Stanley Milgram’s experiment)… had there been any actual receivers” (302). This can also be considered as the dark sides of humanities. Even though perhaps everyone is aware of the potential dangers bring by electric shocks, they are still willing to deliver these shocks. No matter how many times the experiments are done, or in what form the experiments are performed, the result is

Chen 5 always the same. Gradually, this strange social order is constituted. The same thing happens in the city of Manchester. With more people coming to the city performing different jobs, discrimination begins to appear. Johnson writes, “This comes about mainly in the circumstances that through an unconscious, tacit agreement as much as through conscious, explicit intension, the working-class districts are most sharply separated from the parts of the city reserved for the middle class” (197). Working class and middle class are automatically divided into two separate parts that do not even have contact with each other. As Johnson indicates, this phenomenon occurs both unconsciously and consciously. However, different from the ant colony, even though people seem to work together, discrimination divided them into different parts. Moreover, people follow this strange order through their daily life. This can also be considered as the dark side of humanities—people are working together to build the city, but segregation still makes them think that they are different for different social classes. This is the same as what Nelson describes—people enjoy watching other people being abused. Therefore, these strange orders do have things in common—they all come from the dark side of humanities; but there are still the differences—what happens in the Manchester City comes from discrimination. “Images and speech overflow” seems to create some strange orders, such as the chaos in the Manchester City, and people’s confusedness and unsecure as Nelson mentions. This seems to happen unconsciously, like how Manchester becomes a city and the ant colony. Also, “images and speech overflow” might lead to unexpected negative results. If too many brutal images are revealed to the society, the society might become more chaotic thus creates bigger mass, since human beings all have their dark sides. Moreover, segregation divides the Manchester’s citizens into different parts by social classes, just like there are people being abused and others watching them being abused. From one side, it is unfair for people to be treated differently, but this phenomenon seems to occur unconsciously. Therefore, it is hard to

Chen 6 predict the outcome of “images and speech overflow” and get the problems solved, since this problem occurs without awareness and no one particular leader is in charge....