Category: Research

Twilight – In It’s Time

~ Kristine Westman ~ Leave a comment

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer was the cultural phenomenon that hit shelves in 2005 and has been one of the most talked about books ever since. Love it or hate it, you’ve had an opinion about it at some point in your life, and why wouldn’t you! Twilight is the book that took the world by storm with it’s sparkling vampires, hot werewolves, and blushing self insert main character. This love story spanning four books and five movies changed the world in a way no one could anticipate, but with the gift of hindsight we can see  how Twilight changed the world in some of the simplest ways possible. 

Twilight made fiction female. This sounds like an odd statement, but it’s exactly true when we think about how Twilight gained its success and acclaim. Twilight was made with a female audience in mind, and a female main character, a rare thing at the time of books made for primarily little children full of little boy heroes; Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, and Artemis Fowl to name a few. This female driven-ness was all thanks to the amount of female influence the books and movies had, to quote How ‘Twilight’ changed pop culture,

“There was a woman at the very center of it, we had a woman director, and it was written by a woman,” Gathegi enumerates. “It felt very female-driven, the whole momentum of it. That was cool to be part of. I think Twilight, [if it were] made now, would get a lot of credit, because that’s the conversation today.”

(Sollosi, M. 2018)

Twilight was made for women, by women and appealed to the audience that would soon become the most popular audience for media, cinema, and books; young teen girls. Teenage girls were the perfect audience for a book like this, young girls with disposable income, a new interest in boys, and a yearning for a romance with a guy who finds them irresistibly attractive despite their flaws. From this point forward movie studios and novel makers would be advertising in the hopes girls would become obsessed with their shows and keep that obsession going with them in their later lives; shows that successfully managed this being Supernatural, the BBC rendition of Sherlock, and the later seasons of Doctor Who. 

Along that same vein, Twilight was pure in a way many novels aren’t today. It presents relationships in an appealing way, romantic, committed, and innocent, to quote a paper titled Young adult pop fiction: Empathy and the twilight series, “She presents cooperation as crucial in fulfilling her characters’ happiness: the role that love and happiness play in the lives of Bella, Edward, and Jacob is intricately tied to commitment.” (Unzue, 2015) Women wanted to see a fulfilling relationship based on mutual trust, love, commitment, and affection and they didn’t even know it. Women across the world would now carry a new standard of romance with them into their adult lives. 

Twilight changed the way YA novels were written and perceived, bringing a cultural revolution and supernatural creatures to the spotlight. Twilight’s portal of relationships even changed the way women consumed media to some extent thanks to this factor. Now women wanted a supernatural creature who would love them without fail and be obsessed with their every move. “Through this heavily romanticized scheme emerged the larger contemporary vampire culture visible across shows such as The Vampire Diaries (2009–present, CW) and True Blood (2008–2014, HBO).” (Klein, S. 2015) Though The Vampire Diaries ended in 2017 we still see Meyers cultural influence today with shows like Supernatural which just ended last year, Riverdale, (still ongoing) and even the widely popular series The Hunger Games. It was through Meyers’ use of a love triangle and popularity of that trope that The Hunger Games would also become a cultural phenomenon with “team peeta” and “team Gale.” 

To summarize, Twilight was crucial for a cultural reset that would change the way media was advertised, women (and even men to some capacity) perceived relationships, and introduced a supernatural element to nearly all new media, and love triangles to others. Twilight changed current media in so many more ways than just this, and deserves to be recognized for its achievements. I like to end all of my essays with a quote that I believe sums up my feelings better than I could, so in conclusion, “We were all thrown into this amusement park ride, and for better or worse, it was just so much fun,” Lutz says. “Twilight was a great adventure.” (Sollosi, M. 2018)

References

Meyer, S. (2005). Twilight. New York, NY: Little, Brown and.

Sollosi, M. (2018, November 21). How ‘Twilight’ changed pop culture. Retrieved April 19, 2021, from https://ew.com/movies/2018/11/21/twilight-anniversary-impact/

Klein, S. (2015). Twilight: Changing the business and culture of contemporary cinema. Retrieved April 19, 2021, from https://www.forbes5.pitt.edu/article/twilight-changing-business-and-culture-contemporary-cinema  Revised 03/22/21

Unzue, A. (2015, August 14). Young adult pop fiction: Empathy and the twilight series. Retrieved April 19, 2021, from https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/11141

Arrow of God

~ Kristine Westman ~ Leave a comment

In the book ​Arrow of God​, Chinua Achebe created his characters that resided in rural Nigeria during the mid 1920’s. The technology presented is that of the real world in the 1920’s, guns and machetes were being used in this era with much of Africa being skilled in metallurgy and agricultural techniques, according to the article: “Technological Developments in Pre-Colonial Africa”, “​Pre-colonial Africa was experiencing a rapid emergence and spread of classical agricultural and metal-using technologies in the second millennium B.C.​” Despite technology back then being much worse than today, Africa was very skilled in making things like machetes and tools with metal working compared to other nations during that time. Cars were invented in Europe but not mainstream. The industrial era was not yet introduced in rural Nigeria so most people had to rely on manual labor. Man power was used constantly whether it be when people were harvesting yams or constructing roads. The only technology that really reached out to rural Nigeria was guns because they were easy to distribute. Part of the reason why technology from Europe hasn’t been imported to Nigeria is because of Europe only colonizing Africa only about30 years prior. Factories that Europe had were not being built in Africa yet, but they would eventually in ​No Longer at Ease ​which took place in the 1960’s in Nigeria.

Compared to our technology today, ​Arrow of God​ has completely inferior technology due to it taking place in the 1920’s. But that doesn’t mean that technology was bad in Nigeria and in Africa as a whole. In fact, natives in Africa had great knowledge of medicine, tools and weapons. According to the article: “Great Achievements in Science and Engineering in Africa”, “​Before the European invasion of Africa, medicine in what is now Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa, to name just a few places, was more advanced than medicine in Europe.” Medicine nowadays was much better than medicine then but Africa was ahead in medicine compared to Europe and had many types of medicine that could cure different ailments. Ever since then, we have developed much better military technology with hand grenades and improved firearms. Instead of harvesting crops manually we now have technology to harvest them by vehicle and mass produce that crop into a product via factories. In ​Arrow of God ​wives of a father or husband would cook meals by hand when nowadays we can buy fully cooked meals from the store. Nigeria today also has much better technology than in the book because eventually, technology from Europe such as factories, cars and much more were able to make it into Nigeria and the rest of Africa. This prompted people to start working into factories instead of farms later down the line but there are still plenty of farmers in Nigeria and in Africa as a whole to this day.

We have surpassed the technology used in the 1920’s in nearly every way. From military technology to infrastructure technology we have gone from Obi’s which were small to large huts that likely only had one story, to skyscrapers with several floors on them. However with the new technology brought from Europe, the cultural traditions in rural Nigeria greatly diminished. In fact, it is likely that many of the traditions and festivities that resided with the culture of Umuaro in the book would vanish due to this. As the culture and traditions revolved around manual labor when it came to farms and daily life. With the new jobs being created as technology was brought over, it is likely that those traditions would be abandoned soon after. Yet without Europe, places in Africa were able to develop technology just as good or even better than Europe’s in some fields.

References

Blatch, S. B. (2013, February 1). “​Great achievements in science and technology in ancient Africa​.” Asbmb.https://www.asbmb.org/asbmb-today/science/020113/great-achievements-in-stem-in-ancient-africa

“Technological developments in pre-colonial Africa​.” (2020, February 17). The Confucian Weekly Bulletin.https://confucianweeklybulletin.wordpress.com/2020/02/17/technological-developments-in-pre-colonial-africa/

The Martian

~ Kristine Westman ~ Leave a comment

The Martian is a science fiction novel written by Andy Weir. It was Andy Weir’s first book to ever be written and published. The Martian is about a team of astronauts going to Mars for a month so study and hold experiments. Within the first 6 sols, there is a massive dust storm, so big that they had to abort the mission and leave Mars immediately. One of the crewmates, Mark Watney, gets hit by a satellite and is blown into the darkness of the storm. His crewmates want to go find him, but they assume he is dead and they leave. Fortunately, Mark is not dead, but he is stabbed with an antenna from the satellite. From there on, Mark must survive on Mars alone and with little supplies while he waits for someone on Earth to come rescue him.

The Martian was published in 2014, and within three months it sold more than 35,000 copies. The next year, it was made into a movie starring Matt Damon. Some of the main technologies from 2014 included: 3D printed everything, Copenhagen Wheel, Hendo hoverboard, and the Mangalyaan spacecraft, which was the first Asian spacecraft to be sent into Mars orbit. The Martian was set in 2035, fifteen years from now. Some of the technologies in the book include: The Hab, a lab that keeps Mark safe from the outside of Mars; the rover; The Hermes, the gigantic ship that carries the crew to Mars and back; and finally, Mark’s spacesuit. These are just some of the main technologies in The Martian, but there are many more.

The Martian may seem very far fetched with the technologies, but we are actually very close to having almost all of the technologies in the book. “While the premise is science fiction, much of the NASA equipment and technology featured in the film is scientifically accurate” (Orwig, 2015). The Hab is extremely similar to a real life Mars-suited habitat made by NASA, called the HERA. NASA also has a rover like the one in The Martian, also suited for the harsh Mars surface. One of the most impressive is Mark’s spacesuit, and even though NASA has quite perfected it, they have started working on a spacesuit for the Martian surface. “It’s not as sleek as Watney’s fictional spacesuit, but NASA’s Z-2 and Prototype eXploration Suit could be similar to what the first people to walk on Mars wear” (Orwig, 2015). The Hermes uses ion propulsion to travel over 280 million miles, and so does a NASA ship called the Dawn. “NASA’s Dawn spacecraft runs on ion propulsion, which uses xenon ions to accelerate through space” (Orwig, 2015). These technologies from different times are very fascinating because Andy Weir came up with all of this technology before it was even officially out today.

References:

Orwig, J. (2015, September 24). 9 tripped-out sci-fi technologies in ‘The Martian’ that NASA really uses. Retrieved December 12, 2020, from https://www.businessinsider.com/whats-accurate-in-the-martian-2015-9

Weir, A. (2014). The Martian: A novel. New York: Broadway Books.

Williams, M. (n.d.). Top 10 Greatest Inventions & Technologies of 2014. Retrieved December 12, 2020, from https://www.herox.com/blog/266-top-10-greatest-inventions-of-2014

“They Called Themselves the KKK” by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

~ Kristine Westman ~ Leave a comment

During the 1800’s, many different events would lead to the Civil War and its effects. These started before the war began. Slavery was a big issue revolving around this era with many for and many against it. The North took a stance for the abolishment of slavery, while the South wanted to keep slavery. To try and keep things equal between the rival parts of the country, congress created the Missouri Compromise. This would make Texas a free state and Maine a free state, hopefully balancing the numbers. To prevent this problem, they created a line of freedom. Passing through the U.S., it was “drawn through the unincorporated western territories along the 36o30’ parallel, dividing the north and south as free and slave.” (Trigger Events of the Civil War, American Battlefield Trust, 2020) They hoped that this would prevent any confusion involving slavery. However, the fixes didn’t help. Instead, they only contained the problem to certain areas. In 1852, a book called Uncle Tom’s Cabin would be written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. The book was supposed to help spread the word about the conditions of slaves. This tacitic seemed to work, with the book becoming the “the second-best-selling book in America in the 19th century, second only to the Bible.” (Trigger Events of the Civil War, American Battlefield Trust, 2020) This was one of the many decisions that helped push America towards war.

The American Civil War would officially begin on April 12, 1861, with the attack on Fort Sumter. For the beginning of the war, most victories would be won by the Confederacy. However, with the Battle of Gettysburg, the Union would manage a win. More Union defeats would lead to a change in Generals. Ulysses S. Grant would be appointed Lieutenant General on March 9, 1864. The confederacy would follow suit a year later, making Robert E. Lee the General-in-Chief of the Confederacy. However, on the same day, the “U.S. House passes the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery.” (“The Civil War in America”, Library of Congress, 2012). It would only take about four months for the war to end, with General Lee surrendering on April 9, 1865.

I don’t believe that these events directly affected the book They Called Themselves the K.K.K. While the book was written 145 years after the war’s end, the events that followed the war are what the book is based on. If the Civil War had ended differently, the book might have been about something different. When Ulysses S. Grant was made General, the war started to go in the Unions favor. However, the war might have been different without him. Would the Confederacy have won? What would have happened after that? Would a different revolution get rid of slavery? Since slavery was abolished and the Union won, we currently don’t have slavery and only think of it as something from the past. But what if slavery was still around today? Would the KKK have been needed? The KKK was only created because of slavery’s destruction. The book may have been about the Union’s loss instead of an American terrorist group.

References

The Civil War in America Timeline. (2012, November 12). Retrieved December 11, 2020, from https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/civil-war-in-america/timeline.html

Trigger Events of the Civil War. (2020, April 29). Retrieved December 11, 2020, from https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/trigger-events-civil-war

The Way of the Kings

~ Kristine Westman ~ Leave a comment

Note: This essay was written based off a sci-fi novel. However, the research was well developed and shows creativity in how the essay fit the category of “Where in the World.”

Roshar is a planet in the Rosharan system, a part of the universe Brandon Sanderson
created to house his novels, called the cosmere. The planet is first introduced in The Way of Kings. The continent, the only one and called the same as the planet, is roughly oval in shape, and has its own unique ecology. It frequently experiences what are called highstorms, which is slightly self explanatory. Highstorms are large thunderstorms which rush along the continent, created and managed by the Stormfather. They are led by the stormwall, a seemingly solid mass of rain, wind, and lightning that acts as the entrance to the highstorm. These storms are very dangerous, being out in one is fatal, though there are exceptions. Highstorms are the biggest part of Roshar, affecting
every part of the ecosystem and the culture. The plant and animal life is shaped to withstand the highstorms, which would destroy any plant life you might find on Earth. An article about Roshar reads this, “However, the most visually notable feature of Rosharan ecology is the way a vast majority of them adapted to highstorms.” (Coppermind, 2019) The only place on the planet not affected by highstorms in Shinovar, which is protected by a large and wide mountain range that successfully buffets the oncoming winds and stormwall. In Shinovar, human, plant, and animal life
appears to be much the same as that on Earth. The article has this to say on the matter, “Shinovar is the only place on Roshar that has soil.”(Coppermind, 2019) Roshar has three moons, and another article on the topic says this, “Roshar has three moons – Salas, Nomon and Mishim, each of which waxes and wanes separately from the other.”(Stormlight Archive Fandom, 2019)

There are no set seasons on Roshar, they change randomly and only last a couple of weeks. However, the seasons, winter, fall, summer, and spring, act much like the seasons here on Earth. A large part of the natural world on Roshar is dominated by spren. Spren are inhabitants of the Cognitive Realm, but can manifest themselves partially or fully in the Physical Realm. They are classified into two groups, emotionspren and elementalspren. These categories are split into many different species, for lack of a better word. Examples of emotionspren are fearspren, angerspren,
gloryspren, and painspren. Examples of elementalspren are flamespren, ashspren, coldspren, and gravitationspren. These spren can form bonds with humans and other animals on the continent of Roshar, creating a wide variety of interesting phenomena. Some of these things include the Knights Radiant, the majestic warriors of an elder epoch. Some of the bonds spren make with animals result in a higher intelligence, a greater understanding of human beings, and an alleviation of weight. This alleviation of weight is needed in most cases, because as the spren bond the animal, they
lighten its weight, allowing it to be able to support itself and stay intact. These beasts are generally too heavy to not crush themselves with their own weight.

Roshar is similar to Earth in only a few ways. One is humans, both reside on the face of the planet, are the driving force behind the dealings there, and are, in most cases, the most intelligent beings on the face of the planet. Another is the way the culture and economy is similar. They both have forms of currency, and their cultures are similar in ways that I do not understand, but feel. However, they are different in many ways. As you have seen, the weather is very different on Roshar, as compared to our planet. The highstorms are a phenomenon that has never happened here on Earth. Some of the animals are different as well. There are enormous beasts called greatshells, which can grow to the size of an island, and that is no exaggeration. These greatshells are the ones that make up the Reshi Isles. Beasts of this size are not found on Earth. Some of the
flora and fauna found on Roshar is different as well. Roshar’s plant life has adapted to survive the desert-like conditions and the frequent highstorms. This has caused some interesting things to happen, but all can be generalized into one thing. This thing is as follows: the plant life on Roshar retreats into a shell or protective covering to hide from the highstorms, and has water gathering portions of the plant to gather the leftover water thereafter. Earth has nothing like this. The most Earth-like place on Roshar would be Shinovar, and as not much information is provided about the country, we do not know how far those similarities reach. These are descriptions of Roshar, the
inhabitants, and some of the more important aspects of the continent and planet. Included are some comparisons to Earth and its ecosystem, ecology, and important aspects.