Final Thoughts on Technology

            Until this semester, all of my courses at Yavapai College had been online. This class, however, has far exceeded the others in the use of technology as a communication tool. In comparing online learning to my other in-class courses, I have found no real difference in the amount of learning or effort necessary between in-class and online courses. I do however enjoy online as it gives the student and the teacher an incredible amount of flexibility in submitting and grading assignments.

            One of the benefits of taking an English class online is the amount of various resources available to present ideas. Handing in a paper limits a student to the words on the paper. Assignments turned in over the internet can make use of video, presentations, posters, images, and so much more. The English language, as with any language, is a means of communication. An English class is meant to help students to better communicate through writing, but also through the new forms of communication available.

            Blogger was definitely the most used technology. Its user friendly interface and posting were a great help to me. I also enjoyed the manner in which it archived the posts for later viewing. This was immensely helpful when trying to retrieve an old post. Of all the internet resources used, though, I would say the Prezi was my favorite. It gave the presentation an interactive feel while still providing easy use. The way in which you could enlarge or shrink words, pictures, and shapes gave the presentation more personality than a regular blog post.

            All of the skills I learned in this class, including my technology skills, will be helpful to me in the future. Blogging, presentations, video blogs, and writing in general will all help me to be a better communicator. Blogs and vlogs are useful because they remain in an archive for people to later go back and reread (or watch) your post. Presentations will provide a dynamic way of sharing my message with others, be it in the same room or over miles via the internet. In short, nothing compares to the advances we have made in technology. Not to use them will be a great mistake.


Farewell God knows when we shall meet again..- Shakespeare
J. McNerney addendum "hopefully sooner than later!"
 Finally, a song on the transiency of life........
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YISE0wk9XbY&feature=autoplay&list=PL819505D7D157BDD2&lf=plpp_play_all&playnext=1&shuffle=15067

Letter To Laura Cline

                                                                                                                                          12-01-2011


To: Laura Cline, English 102 Instructor


          Thank you so much for an excellent semester. I would say that this class has been one of the most enjoyable I have done yet. It not only engaged me academically through the writing assignments, but also on the social level by utilizing social networks such as blogger and YouTube to do assignments. There are many things that have gone into making this an enjoyable and informative course, things that will help me now in my college time as a student and later on in life as well.


There have definitely been much improvement in my use of technology. Using blogs, videos, and online presentations was entirely foreign to me before this class, so this was definitely the biggest hurdle but also the greatest victory for me. This I would say is extremely important in today’s culture where so much communication is done over the internet. Utilizing these resources will benefit not only my academics but also in my future as a priest. A priest’s duty is to reach out to people, and if they are on the internet then that is where he must go. I want to thank you for helping me to better discover the vast amount of resources available.


The learning outcomes were definitely met. I enjoyed learning especially in the areas of organization and review. I think that I write fairly well, except that I had a hard time staying focused on one subject. Many of my papers  began to drift to other subjects by the middle of the paper so that by the time I reached the end I had gotten onto a completely different subject. Now that I have better organization and review, I can catch myself before I drift too far.


 The readings were also exciting and interesting to read.  I had never read Frankenstein so it was like reading a fun novel for school. The assignments also helped me to better analyze works. I read a fair amount of non-fiction works by leading theologians and thinkers such as George Weigel, R. R. Reno, and founded by Richard John Neuhauss. Learning to better analyze papers helps significantly in understanding these authors thoughts and writings.


The research involved in the writing assignments was also great. I loved researching the history of dragon lore, a subject I might have not looked into otherwise. My findings have further prompted me to continue writing a fictional novel about a mythical land about to be overwhelmed by evil. Dragons will have their role to play, but as I write about their ferocity it will no doubt remind me of their part in literature as well. Critiquing Shelley’s Frankenstein and other works by various authors was also exciting as we attempted to delve into the minds and motives of the authors.


This as I have said has been a most rewarding class. I have enjoyed the comradeship of my fellow bloggers and benefited from their ideas. I look forward to writing more and better in the future. I cannot thank you enough for all of the advice, teaching and effort you put into this class. May you have a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year, and many more successful semesters.
Pax et bonum,
Joseph McNerney

Where is Communication going? Click on the Link to see Forbes site on communication advances:
http://www.forbes.com/2005/10/20/future-communications-gadgets-cx_gd_1024feat_comm05_ls.html

Final Presentation: Operation Technology

Eng 102 Final Project on Prezi

Zombie or Media Tool: The Role of the Zombie (among other things) in American Cinema

(I edited the following picture, Enjoy!)

                  To be dead is one thing, but to be forever in the state of death, not dead and not alive, is torture indeed. Zombies, the living dead, have interested mankind forever. Yet Zombies perform a function that many other monsters also perform in literature. It is that of addressing seldom discussed or repressed feelings and ideas. These most often are feelings of fear or ethics. We all have aspirations for the advancement of technology, but films like Resident Evil demonstrate the ethical side of the equation. The implications of creating a virus that could turn the dead into zombies are graphically portrayed. Yet other zombie movies deal with issues closer to home, those of racism, cultural divides, and civil chaos. As Kyle Bishop writes in his introduction to the book American Zombie Gothic, “Of course, even though zombies are certainly uncanny and frightening by themselves…such monsters would not prove much of a threat to if actualized in the modern world; most probably the police or military could quickly exterminate these aberrations. However, zombie movies are almost always set during (or shortly after) the apocalypse where those reassuring infrastructures cease to exist.” (Bishop 22)Yet it is precisely those “reassuring infrastructures” that modern people hold so dear. What would a world without morality or propriety be like with no force to keep order? We have a glimpse when we look at a society overrun by zombies. The producers and directors of zombie film are not different than other directors. They seek to give a message. Be it on racism, the world after 9-11, bioweapons, world peace, etc., each director has a way of conveying that message. For some it is through comedy, others through science fiction. In recent days a favorite of horror movie directors has been to emphasize their message by adding zombies. The vampires of the Twilight saga represent ostracization. They are “reformed” vampires, never dying, but who long to be in society. Many ethnic groups experience this exclusion and hopefully the exposed feelings of the Cullen’s will have an effect upon our prejudice. In the wake of the anthrax scares in the months and years following September 11, we have seen movies like the one mentioned earlier, Resident Evil, that urge us to avoid growing our bio-technology in that direction. While zombies and vampires take these social and ethical issues to an extreme, it demonstrates a vivid point nonetheless.

Works Cited

Bishop, K. W. (n.d.). Introduction-The Zombie film and its cycles. In American Zombie Gothic. Jefferson: MacFarland and Co.

Here is a link on Zombies:

http://www.umich.edu/~engl415/zombies/zombie.html

Taming the Terror: The Evolution of Dragon Lore and the Decline of Judeo-Christian Morality

Sorry for the long essay! Thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to read this!

Joseph McNerney

Eng 102

Cline

3 November, 2011

Taming the Terror:

The Evolution of Dragon Lore and the Decline of Judeo-Christian Morality

            Who would have thought? Looking back over the millennia of storytelling, it seemed unlikely that one of the fiercest of all beasts should have become so tame. The dragon, oldest foe of humanity, has in recent days undergone a metamorphism in the West and is now more of a neutral or even friendly creature. Dragons have cease to be the evil, wise, ultra powerful monsters of old. That generation appears to have completely died out and new one has risen to power. The dragons of today are sometimes still as wise and definitely as powerful, but they are no longer evil per se, that is they no longer are consistently the archenemies, the nemesis  of man. The cause of this is something that while on the surface seems unconnected, is really deeply fused with dragon lore. The cause is Judeo-Christian culture, or the lack thereof. The more connected we are to Christian culture, the more sinister and evil the dragon becomes. On the contrary, as we move away from being a nearly homogenous population of deep rooted Christians, the dragon takes on a much more appealing, majestic, and even a friendly role. In mathematical terms we could say that the dragons reputation is inversely proportional to the degree of Judeo-Christian influence in society. Hence this phenomena is restricted to Western culture, that has been most heavily influenced by Christianity. Eastern traditions have a completely different set of dragon lore and symbols that will not be discussed here. The trend in Western literature, though, is both as startling as it is obvious.

            While we normally think of dragons as four legged reptilian monsters with wings and smoking nostrils, its origins come from the snake. Michael O’ Brien writes in his book A Landscape with Dragons, “Egyptian, Chaldean, Greek, Roman, Aztec and some Oriental mythologies are full of gargantuan reptiles, and their nature is almost always depicted as malicious or sly.” (Obrien 30) Often in ancient literature the words dragon, serpent, and snake are used synonymously. The snake in ancient Greek and Roman literature was generally associated with evil, harm, and destruction. Take for example of the description of the evil god Typhon, the son of Gaia, “ He had on his shoulders a hundred fearsome snake heads, all with black tongues and eyes flashing fire, and these heads were able to imitate every conceivable sound - the bellow of a great bull, the roar of a lion, the baying of a pack of hounds, the hissing of serpents.” (March 47) The strength of Typhon can hurl mountains and its powers of imitation and cunning are great. In numerous other places where snakes are seen, they are generally bringers of evil.  The Gorgon Medusa’s head was covered with snakes, any of which could turn someone into stone. Scylla, the sea monster from the travels of Odysseus, had six snake heads large enough to carry off a man which, of course, she did. Their deaths by her are described in gruesome detail. So the snake even in ancient times was generally seen as dangerous, though not necessarily evil. There are places where snakes and dragons are used as guardians and messengers. Still, heroes like Jason and Hercules slayed these serpents and obtained their treasure. It was in the Jewish culture, the one that would eventually through Christianity dominate all of Europe, that serpents were seen as consistently diabolic. In the books of the bible there is evidence of serpents and dragons everywhere. In Genesis, the very first book, it says “Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made.” (The Holy Bible, 3:1) It goes on to tell thestory of the fall of man, brought about by, interestingly enough, a serpent. The idea of evil being personified by a serpent continues throughout the Bible right into the book of Revelation with the portent of the huge red dragon. To the Jews and Chrisitians then, dragons were more than just a menace. They were the menace. Consequently, as Chrisitianity spread throughout Europe, this concept went with it. Thus, much Medieval literature that contains dragons portrays them as the apex of evil.

            Beowulf, the great epic poem, is one such piece. Written between the sevnth and tenth century, it has become well known as one of the great epic poems about monsters and chivalrous deeds. Our focus  is towards the end of the poem where Beowulf meets the dragon in combat. The poem relates how this is not animal creature that they contend with, but a vicous and above all concious monster that greedily guards its treasure hoard. From the poem itself, at the point in which some person took a cup from the dragon hoard, it says,”So the guardian of the mound, the hoard-watcher, waited for the gloaming with fierce impatience; his pent-up fury at the loss of the vessel made him long to hit vack and lash out in flames.” (Anonymous 157) The dragon is a hater of humans and insists on kiling every one it comes across. Cassandra Eason in the book Fabulous Creatures, Mythical Monsters, and Animal Power Symbols describes what happened. “…Beowulf led his warriors against the dragon, all ran away except for Wiglaf. Though they defeated the dragon, Beowulf was fatally wounded and was buried in a high place overlooking the sea.” (Eason 49) The message here is that dragons are not something to be taken lightly. If one alone could bring down one of the mightiest warriors, what chance did any commoner have against them? Dragons were evil and dangerous, much as the devil is portrayed. This idea  shows the strong conection to the bible and Christian culture. This idea was carried on for some time after the middle ages as well.

            Even as recently as the stories by C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkein, dragons have kept their diabolical demeanor. Eustace Scrubb, a boy from the book Voyage of the Dawn Treader by Lewis, is turned into a dragon after thinking “dragonish thoughts in his heart” (Lewis 91) Lewis shows by this portrayal that it is what is in the heart that makes something dragonish rather than the physical appearance alone. Lewis was a deeply Christian man, and therefore much influenced by the Christian culture. Tolkein too was a Christian, and the dragons in his books, The Hobbit and The Silmarillion not only follow the traditional style of dragon, but he also endows them with speech. This allows them to not merely terrify the onlooker, but if they are careful, they can be persuasive to attain their ends. In The Children of Hurin, Turin Túrambar, the unlucky protagonist and eventual slayer of the dragon Glaurung is deceived by him to rescue his relations rather than the woman he loves, who later dies at enemy hands. Glaurung says deceitfully “I offer you freedom. Go to your kin, if you can. Get you gone! And if Elf or man be left to make tale of these days, then surely in scorn they will name you if you spurn this gift.” (Tolkein 180)  He later finds those who he came to save have gone off to look for him and are in fact meeting the dragon themselves.  Tolkien’s dragons also have the power to work spells and control minds, making them intellectual enemies. This hearkens back to the dragon in Beowulf who is definitely an intelligent creature. The dragons from these books are always shown in a light that betrays their heart’s wikedness and malice. The changing of the heart of Eustace from the Narnia series brings about his physical change as well. Glaurung and his offspring live and die as evil creatures, there to test the brave of heart. The message is still clear. While dragons in these stories may not represent the absolute evil of the earlier centuries, they are still associated with corruption, sadism, and vile intentions. Then suddenly at the end of the nineteenth century and seemingly without warning, the dragon changed entirely.

            Dragons in recent days have either moral neutrality as animals or are seen as good friends and allies to humanity. In Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling, the dragons are the first task that Harry and his comrades must overcome. There is nothing inherently evil about them.They are classified by species, the dragon’s instincts are described in an animal-like way, and she is handled as the beasts in the Colluseum were long ago.  “”What breeds you gout here Charlie” said Hagrid… “This is a Hungarian Horntail,” said Chralie, “There’s a common Welsh Green over there, the smaller one--a Swedish Short-Snout, that blue-gray—and a chinese Fireball, that’s the red”…The Horntail did not seem to want to take off, she was too protective of her eggs…Harry saw the dragon keepers rushing forward to subdue the Horntail…” (Rowling 326-356) This show the dragon as more of an animal that needs training than an evil monster that must be killed by the heroic knight. Their moral neutrality is in itself a dramatic change, yet some autors such as Christopher Paolini, go even further. In the immensely popular Inheritance Cycle, dragons are more than just animals. They are wise individuals and the allies of the book’s heroes. Just as Tolkien’s dragons could talk, so does Saphira, the dragon from the series. Yet their messages are entirely different. Far from deceiving anyone, Saphira is there as a friend and mentor to young Eragon. She shows intelligence as well as emotions of frustration and love. “Saphira snorted, and a puff of smoke rose from her nostrils. Wear it, Eragon. If you wish to remain above the forces here, do not let anyone’s disaproval dictate your actions.” (Paolini 439) What could have caused the change in these portryals? How did we go so rapidly from evil nemeses to friendly couselors? The answer lies in the abandonment of Judeo-Christian morality and the rise of relativism.

            As we see from the other older sources, serpents were shaped according to ancient tradition. For the west, this was done with a strong Christian, and therefore also Jewish, influence. For almost two thousand years there were relatively few people in the West that were not some denomination of Christian. Hence, their writing reveals their belief system. The same cannot be said for today’s society.”Serpents and dragons are now tamed like pets by some, worshiped by others,” says O’brien. (Obrien 57) This is due to the fact that becoming a globalized community has greatly diluted the concentration of writers who are devoted to Christian ideals. We then add to this that faith is no longer as important to people as it was even a hundred years ago, let alone one thousand years ago.  The Gallup poll on religion states that the number of people who said that religion was not very important in their lives increased from twelve to twenty percent between 1992 and last year. (Gallup 1) This trend will not go undetected in the literature that is being written. It is clear that as we move away from being a Judeo-Christian society, the dragon will continue to take on more and more new roles. The traditional dragon will become just another kind, another “species” as the Harry Potter books put it, set apart from the others only in that it once held dominance over literature.

            In the end, it comes down to this: Literature is more about the person who writes the piece and about the time that in which they lived than about entertainment or fame. The dragon is evidence of this. The next time you read about a dragon, do not think just about the plot. Think about the context that the dragon is used. Relate it to the author’s views or the era that they lived in. You will find that there is more symbolism in a dragon than you might expect.

Works Cited

Anonymous. Beowulf. Trans. Seamus Heaney. Bilingual. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2000. Print.

Eason, Cassandra. Fabulous Creature, Mythical Monsters, and Animal Power Symbols. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2008. Print.

Gallup. "Religion." 2011. gallup.com. Document. 3 November 2011. <http://www.gallup.com/poll/1690/religion.aspx#1>.

Lewis, C. S. Voyage of the Dawn Treader. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1952. Print.

March, Jenny. The Penguin Book of Classical Myths. London: Penguin Books, 2008. Print.

Obrien, Michael. A Landscape with Dragons. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1998. Print.

Paolini, Christopher. Eragon. New York: Random House, 2003. Print.

Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. New York: Scholastic, 2000. Print.

The Holy Bible. "Genesis 3." 1995. Bible.com. Document. 3 November 2011. <http://bibleresources.bible.com/passagesearchresults.php?passage1=Genesis+3&version1=49>.

Tolkein, J. R. R. The Children of Hurin. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2007. Print.

Works Cited

Eason, Cassandra. Fabulous Creature, Mythical Monsters, and Animal Power Symbols. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2008. Print.

This one is exceptionally good in terms of a research book. Eason goes in depth to the history and symbolism of many creatures, though I will be focusing on dragons.

Obrien, Michael. A Landscape with Dragons. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1998. Print.

Also a very interesting book, Obrien writes little, but very well on dragons. This has to do more with the cultural side of my paper.

Paolini, Christopher. Eragon. New York: Random House, 2003. Print.

The entire novel focuses on a boy's relationship with a dragon. As one of my recent sources, this book is critical to my paper as it shows explicitly the transformation of the dragon.

Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. New York: Scholastic, 2000. Print.

The popular book series mentions dragons just briefly, but it is how they mention them that is important. J. K. Rowling is definitely a genius.

project 2

            I have chosen Option #2, the selection of a monster for critical thought and analysis, for my project.  The monster that I will focus on is the dragon, that classical reptile that has appeared throughout history. The dragon to me has undergone a change in recent literature, a change that has met with no small amount of criticism. The change is that we no longer see dragons as “evil” or as cunningly mischievous as they have been portrayed in the past. This may be due to the fact that we no longer classify things as either inherently evil or good.  With the rise of relativism, society has begun to no longer labels actions as right or wrong. Rather, we emphasize the circumstances which may lead a person to choose one action from another. My purpose in this project is to show how this mentality has changed the way we see and portray dragons in literature. For this project I will be using much classical literature such as Beowulf, Le Morte d’ Arthur, the Bible, and classical Greek and Roman myths. I will be contrasting these with newer titles, such as the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Children of Hurin, The Goblet of Fire, and the Inheritance Cycle. I will also be using some secondary sources on the analysis of dragons from titles like Fabulous Creatures, Mythical Monsters and Animal Power Symbols by Eason and  A Landscape with Dragons by Michael O’Brien. Some outside statistics on the rise of relativism will no doubt also be included. The dragon is as majestic as it is dangerous. I am in the beginning processes of writing a fantasy novel myself at the present, in which dragons are included in their classical appearance.  I look forward to doing this research and am enthusiastic about the results.

Here is the link to Animal Planets own site about dragons:

http://animal.discovery.com/convergence/dragons/