Dave Eggers' The Circle
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The document discusses the themes and societal implications present in dystopian literature, emphasizing the critique of contemporary realities and the struggle for individuality amidst oppressive systems. It outlines the role of art in social movements, the stages of social movements according to the Movement Action Plan, and explores posthumanist perspectives in relation to gender and identity. The discussion also highlights significant works like '1984,' 'Brave New World,' and 'The Circle,' drawing parallels to current societal issues such as surveillance and control.
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Dave Eggers' The Circle
- 1. DYSTOPIA, ART & REVOLUTION Right now! Also…The Circle (also our quiz, also your final)
- 2. Dystopian literature ■ Speculates on possible outcomes from current conditions ■ Provides commentary on current social, economic and other realities ■ Satirizes the human condition ■ Examines the human condition ■ Represents the ongoing struggles of different societies and people overall to maintain individuality and human kindness in the face of equally human desires for power and control ■ Sends a message about the dangers perceived by the author and others
- 3. Utopians GoneWrong ■ As the Commander notes in The Handmaid’sTale, better for some always means worse for others ■ The societies in the dystopian novels all have utopian premises—someone believes society has been improved (“MakeAmerica Great Again!”) ■ We learn that the society isn’t so great through living it via a hero/anti-hero/victim of the new society ■ So one question to ask is what was the intent of those who changed society? And what was the perception of those who fought? ■ But first, what’s happening right now in the real world?
- 4. Social unrest: on the streets and through art
- 12. Art and Social Movements ■ Art (representation through aesthetic means) is clearly an element ■ What role does it play? ■ Presentation of issues (known as framing) ■ Drawing people/involving them (known as mobilizing)
- 13. Art & Social Movements ■ What role does art play? Different theories include: ■ Can be used to maintain or promulgate ideas (propaganda) ■ Can be used to unsettle/challenge society ■ Can just reflect society as it is ■ Frivolous/entertainment
- 14. Art & Social Movements ■ Raises awareness ■ Prompts debate ■ Goes beyond cognitive effects to: ■ Provide emotional reassurance ■ Reinforce values ■ Create a sense of community/solidarity ■ Create venues for dissemination ■ Raise money/resources
- 15. Culture Jamming ADBUSTERS #Occupy Buy Nothing Day digital detox etc
- 16. Culture Jamming ■ Yes Men ■ Spreading the word ■ And let’s not forget the Guerilla Girls
- 17. Art meets Social Cause ■ Ghost Bikes ■ CultureStrike ■ God Bless Graffiti Coalition ■ Critical Resistance ■ Local Projects ■ Puppets
- 18. Shifts in Economy ■ America’s decline as a superpower: dollar no longer strong; no longer leader in technology; shrinking power for world trade ■ Rising deficits, in large part due to the cost of military actions ■ Evidence that the US is slipping into a worse depression than the 30s
- 19. What to do, what to do ■ The Movement Action Plan ■ A framework, written by Bill Moyer in the late 1980s, widely used by groups to delineate the path of social movements. ■ Describes eight stages of a social movement, and the roles of those participating in them.
- 20. Expanded into book form
- 22. MAP plan describes two views of power ■ Power Elite: • Relatively few elite at the top, controlling government, laws, social norms, the mass on the bottom • Power flows from top to bottom • Social change happens by the masses appealing to the elites
- 23. People Power ■ Holds that power resides with the populace ■ And that even power elites’ power is dependent on agreement and cooperation by the people ■ Under MAP, people power is the model for social movements ■ In other words, the effort isn’t to convince the top to change, but to educate and mobilize the people.
- 24. Source of Power in Social Movements ■ A strong sense of right and wrong ■ An understanding of the world largely through symbolism
- 25. The Struggle ■ Is between a social movement and the power holders for the trust and belief of the general public. ■ Power holders want the public to believe they are acting in the best interest of the public ■ The social movement wants the public to realize that’s not true.
- 26. The Challenge ■ So a social movement’s challenge is to win over the majority of the public ■ This is done by showing that the movement’s values resonate with the symbolic values of the public. ■ Those values could include: human rights, democracy freedom etc.
- 27. Stage One: NormalTimes ■ Even if conditions are bad, policies are maintained and most people are unaware that the basic values they hold aren’t being upheld. ■ Opposition to conditions are ridiculed and efforts are ineffective
- 28. Stage 2: Proving the Failure of Institutions ■ The movement proves to the public that policies are violating their beliefs and values. ■ Public movements often spurred on by anger at hypocrisy. ■ This requires the movement to do its homework, to provide proof, and to use all the standard avenues at its disposal.
- 29. Stage 3: Ripening Conditions ■ Growing awareness and discontent ■ Growth of local groups, a wave of grassroots opposition ■ Longer-term trends that worsen the situation, like a tanking economy, loss of jobs, gun violence, student loans, you get the idea
- 30. Stage 4:Take Off ■ Trigger event that highlights the problem itself ■ Followed by social protest ■ Can be planned; can be by accident.
- 31. Stage 5: Identity Crisis ■ Movement’s hopes turn to despair ■ Faith that success will happen falters ■ Perception that power- holders are too strong ■ Perception that their efforts have been pointless
- 32. Stage 6: Majority Public Support ■ Winning over the majority opinion of the population ■ Grassroots movement is needed: ongoing low-intensity local organizing ■ Massive public education ■ Coalition building ■ Re-use of public forums of expression and regular conduits, keeping the issue in the spotlight
- 33. Stage 7: Success ■ Turning the tide against the power holders, either through: ■ Dramatic showdown ■ Quiet showdown ■ Attrition
- 34. Stage 8: Continuing the Struggle ■ Celebrating the success ■ Following up to make sure the laws actually are followed/changes implemented ■ Working toward new goals in the existing movement ■ Fostering new issues ■ Going beyond reform to actual systemic change.
- 35. How did you learn about an issue about which you now care? ■ What did you do then? ■ What did you want to do? ■ What do you feel are your options? ■ What are the obstacles?
- 36. Dystopic Parameters & Quiz Review ■ A figurehead or concept is worshipped by the citizens of the society. ■ Citizens are perceived to be under constant surveillance. ■ Citizens live in a “dehumanized” state. ■ Conformity among citizens and assumption that individuality and dissent are bad. ■ An illusion of a perfect utopia ■ —Read, Write, Think.org
- 37. Quiz Review ■ Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood ■ First in a trilogy, followed by year of the flood (2009) and Maddaddam (2013) ■ Humans’ disregard for nature: GMOs ■ Trauma in the individual life wrought on the world ■ Sex trafficking/ pornography/violence in video games ■ Isolation and community ■ A figurehead or concept is worshipped by the citizens of the society. ■ Citizens are perceived to be under constant surveillance. ■ Citizens live in a “dehumanized” state. ■ Conformity among citizens and assumption that individuality and dissent are bad. ■ An illusion of a perfect utopia
- 38. Consider the “future” in the novel ■ Jimmy and Crake live on the CorpSeCorps compound. Current parallels? (keep in mind Atwood wrote this book in 2003). ■ Apparently no government, only corporate surveillance.Any current parallel to that? ■ Jimmy and Crake spend a lot of their time online in some form, and searching for hidden/dark web content.What about today? ■ How do you think their environment impacts Jimmy and Crake’s stance toward life? What about today? ■ The game "Extinctathon" plays a foreshadowing role in the novel. Jimmy and Crake also play "Barbarian Stomp" and "Blood and Roses."What comparable video games do you know of?What do you think about virtual violence?Are there advantages?Are there disadvantages?
- 39. Post-Humanism ■ Posthumanism considers the possibility that historical phenomena (such as advances in technology or discoveries about animals) are leading to fundamental changes in the human species and its relationship with the world.
- 40. Post-Humanism ■ It thus involves radically rethinking the dominant, familiar humanist account of who “we” are as human beings. According to the humanist model (a clear and influential example of which can be found in the seventeenth-century writings of Rene Descartes), the figure of the human has a natural and eternal place at the very center of things, where it is clearly distinguished from machines and animals, where it shares with all other human beings a unique and universal essence, where it is the origin of meaning and the sovereign subject of history, and where it acts according to something called “human nature
- 41. Post-Human ■ ” For humanists, “Man,” to use the problematic gendered term often employed in accounts of “the human condition,” enjoys a position of automatic and unquestionable hegemony. “Man” is the measure of all things. Posthumanism, by way of contrast, begins with the recognition that “Man” is not the privileged and protected center, because humans are no longer – and perhaps never were – utterly distinct from animals and machines, are the products of historical and cultural differences that make any appeal to universal human essence impossible… —The Encyclopedia of Literary and CulturalTheory
- 42. Posthumanism + gender ■ As we’ve discussed, binary gender tends to categorize people into roles, and roles tend to create hierarchies, aka power structures and oppression ■ Traditional feminist thought focuses on that oppression, on patriarchy and its consequences ■ You could argue (and many have) that this traditional feminist lens is at odds with third-wave feminists, queer theory and the like because the latter groups are less concerned with oppression and more concerned with identity politics than with identification of oppressive structures. ■ Transhumanism is more concerned with the fusing of thoughts regarding biological determinism with the advances of technology and science. In other words, what can science and technology bring to the desires of the post-binary world?
- 43. He, She and It ■ Winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best Science Fiction in the United Kingdom (1991) ■ Author Marge Piercy considers herself a political writer. She is a poet, novelist and memoirist; she’s written 43 books (by my counting) ■ Her novel, Woman on the Edge ofTime (1976) explores comparable science-fiction and feminist motifs
- 44. Cyborgs as a construct for exploring identity ■ In Donna Harraway’s essay,The Cyborg Manifesto, she defines the cyborg thusly: ■ “A cyborg is a cybernetic organism, a hybrid of machine and organism, a creature of social reality as well as a creature of fiction. Social reality is lived social relations, our most important political construction, a world-changing fiction.The international women’s movements have constructed ‘women’s experience,’ as well as uncovered or discovered this crucial collective object.This experience is a fiction and fact of the most crucial, political kind.”
- 45. Cyborgs and women ■ June Deery argues in part that “cyborgs might resemble or identify with” women and visa versa in the novel. ■ Yod’s position in society is comparable to women in patriarchal society: he has to close read other’s reactions, he isn’t paid for his work, he’s compared to a sex toy by a character ■ He ultimately rejects his own technological/weaponized role/ aka masculine role
- 46. Brave NewWorld by Aldous Huxley ■ Reflects fears about the role of technology over society (even though mostly all they had were cars and the radio) ■ State control versus people’s willingness to be controlled ■ Consumerism ■ Squashing human instincts toward love and art with mind control and drugs ■ Control over sexual norms and reproduction ■ Caste society ■ A figurehead or concept is worshipped by the citizens of the society. ■ Citizens are perceived to be under constant surveillance. ■ Citizens live in a “dehumanized” state. ■ Conformity among citizens and assumption that individuality and dissent are bad. ■ An illusion of a perfect utopia
- 47. 1984 ■ “Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written directly or indirectly against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it.” —George Orwell, ”Why IWrite”
- 48. 1984 ■ Constant surveillance ■ Thought crimes ■ Control through language (newspeak) ■ Control through fear ■ Doublethink (hypocrisy) ■ Erasure of the past (memory hole) ■ Control over love, sex, reproductive freedom ■ A figurehead or concept is worshipped by the citizens of the society. ■ Citizens are perceived to be under constant surveillance. ■ Citizens live in a “dehumanized” state. ■ Conformity among citizens and assumption that individuality and dissent are bad. ■ An illusion of a perfect utopia
- 49. The Circle ■ Dave Eggers, founder of McSweeneys, which publishes The Believer ■ Author of at least 10 books, novels and otherwise. Fiction author and journalist ■ Social activist ■ His work has been nominated for the National Book Award, the Pulitzer Prize, and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and has won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, France’s Prix Médicis, Germany’sAlbatross Prize, the National MagazineAward, and the American Book Award. ■ Founded 826Valencia, a nonprofit youth writing and tutoring center in San Francisco’s Mission District
- 50. The Circle and 1984? ■ War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. —George Orwell, “1984” ■ Secrets are lies. Sharing is Caring. Privacy is theft. —Dave Eggers, “The Circle” “Sharing is Caring is Sharing,” Betsy Morais, Oct. 20, 2013The NewYorker
- 51. The Circle and Brave NewWorld? ■ The Circle is Brave NewWorld for our brave new world — and let’s be frank: Aldous Huxley’s classic is no model of understatement, either. Now that we all live and move and have our being in the panopticon, Eggers’s novel may be just fast enough, witty enough and troubling enough to make us glance away from our twerkingVines and consider how life has been reshaped by a handful of clever marketers.” —Ron Charles, WaPo, Oct. 1, 2013
- 52. The Circle ■ What’s the concept? ■ How does surveillance play out? ■ How are the characters dehumanized? ■ How is conformity represented? ■ What is the illusory nature ofThe Circle? ■ A figurehead or concept is worshipped by the citizens of the society. ■ Citizens are perceived to be under constant surveillance. ■ Citizens live in a “dehumanized” state. ■ Conformity among citizens and assumption that individuality and dissent are bad. ■ An illusion of a perfect utopia
- 53. The Circle ■ The characters…thoughts on Mae? ■ Obviously, a story about the dangers of technology...what about sex and technology? ■ What is the role of family in this society? ■ What statement is the book making about identity?
- 54. Coming up… ■ Next week, final reading quiz plus movie ■ The week after that isThanksgiving ■ The week after that (Dec. 2) Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel ■ Dec. 9, class is a SURPRISE ■ Finals week, Dec. 16.We will not be meeting but your final papers are due
- 55. This is weird ■ “The image of a DonaldTrump supporter has long been considered the face of an angry white man. But it was white women who pushedTrump to victory. According to CNN’s exit polls, 53% of white women voted forTrump – rejecting the possibility of a first female president. In interviews, white women saidTrump’s record as a businessman and his policy positions resonated with them more strongly than Clinton’s candidacy as a woman.They downplayed his behavior to varying degrees and saw Clinton’s flaws as more troubling.” —UK Guardian, Nov. 10
Editor's Notes
- #3: Before we look at the books we’ve been reading, let’s look at the real world
- #6: Belgian cartoonist
- #7: Holland and Mexico
- #8: Canada,
- #9: Arab news site Hunasotak
- #11: Brazil
- #13: Framing is a concept, a term, that’s important in social movement theory. Some sociologists believe that how a movement frames their goals/ideas is key to whether or not they succeed. But what’s interesting about framing is that it assumes that people respond purely intellectually to movement causes, rather than emotionally. Mobilization often thought of as techniques: solicitation, fundraising, education, social media
- #14: Look at the impact music had on changing American society from the 50s to the 60s Aaron pointed out introduction of gay culture through pop culture;
- #15: Music has probably been focused on the most in social movement theory because of the way in which music plays at people’s emotions, draws people in
- #17: The business community was stunned one Monday morning when the powerful U.S. Chamber of Commerce, long a stalwart enemy of sensible climate legislation, appeared to dramatically reverse it's position. During a well attended press conference at the National Press Club in downtown Washington, DC, Chamber representative "Hingo Sembra" announced some startling news
- #18: Go to visual dinner guest
- #19: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2010/12/06/america_collapse_2025 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/09/27/investopedia61952.DTL
- #20: Organizing a movement, opportunity to see a movement growing in the time of this class.
- #25: Movements happen when people set one into motion because they’re upset and believe that their values and interests are being violated, particularly when they feel that their leaders are violating their trust.
- #27: That’s how movements are able to create social change.
- #28: For instance, African Americans’ rights were being widely violated prior to the civil rights demonstrations in the 60s and the social movement and change that grew out of that.
- #29: St. vincent ceo. In other words, don’t match in the streets first. First, go to the city council, file the lawsuit, testify in the public hearings. You can’t prove the system is broken until you’ve used the system.
- #31: Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to move to the back of the bus in 1955, that launched what was already growing opposition to the discrimination against African Americans; it gave people their event and heightened awareness. Troy Davis’ execution sent people into the street.
- #32: Goals haven’t been achieved so the movement believes it is failing.
- #33: Ironically, Stage 5 usually happens at the same time as stage 6. Just as movement feels it is hopeless, is the same time that it’s actually shifted majority opinion
- #34: Major showdowns during the civil rights movement, the marches in Selma forced president Johnson and Congress into motion that lead to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Quiet showdown is the people in power realize the people’s will and shift their policies, and try to take credit for it. Attrition refers to the slow, decades long changes to policy and leaders. Obviously, in attrition, much harder for activists to take credit.
- #35: Even when gay marriage passed, there will still be work to be done about homophobia and acknowledging differences
- #47: The novel was written in the aftermath of several large historical events: World war 1 Influx of new technology, early harbingers of globalization, including cars, mass production, mass media The great depression and subsequent new deal (federal programs 1918 super flu
- #49: Which brings us to the circle
- #51: Where “1984” has the vigilant Police Patrol and Thought Police, “The Circle” has SeeChange and Clarification. Surveillance isn’t a bad word; it’s a gift, even a human right.
- #52: After this slide Rachel and Jen. As a work of architecture, the panopticon allows a watchman to observe occupants without the occupants knowing whether or not they are being watched. As a metaphor, the panopticon was commandeered in the latter half of the 20th century as a way to trace the surveillance tendencies of disciplinarian societies. Is it still a useful way to think about surveillance in an age of NSA and GCHQ?
- #53: After this: Rachel and
- #54: Stewart's Storage Unit (Symbol) Mae's fascination with Stewart's Storage Unit far in the basement of the Circle is symbolic of exactly what all the sharing she and others have been doing amounts to. It physicalizes the amount of information one can put out, but its storage in a dank and secluded place demonstrates the sadness and wastefulness of attempting to share everything with everyone.