“But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness, I want sin.”
“In fact,” said Mustapha Mond, “you’re claiming the right to be unhappy.”
“All right, then,” said the Savage defiantly, “I’m claiming the right to be unhappy.”
“Not to mention the right to grow old and ugly and impotent; the right to… be tortured by unspeakable pains of every kind.”
There was a long silence.
“I claim them all,” said the Savage at last.
I’m currently reading up on a book called “Dystopian Fiction East and West: Universe of terror and trial” which I’m really enjoying at the moment to be honest. The chapter I’m on starts by detailing the contents of Plato’s “Republic” and the vision of a perfect society where “law and reason” reign and the poets who live by “pleasure and pain” are exiled from the fabled land, it likewise mentions a similiar work by Thomas More written in the 1500’s detailing the island of “Utopia” in which similiar things happen. The author then goes on to mention how just as Plato attempted to dispel the concept of tragic from the Republic so did the Soviet Union in it’s conception and indeed the removal of such things from it’s future.
The author then goes on to comment on how Marxism simply tried to simply suppress the tragic as there was no room for it amongst the pride of scientific principles and that Christianity (she mentions the book of Job and his plea for justice) puts it’s hope amongst the greater narrative of the divine comedy. The Christian scheme of resurrection and redemption which Marx critiqued for enabling religion to function as the “Opiate of the Masses”. Marxism saw itself as a mechanism, a means to fulfill the gradual (‘evolutionary’ even) enlightenment of all people into a leisurely, classless and just society, Christianity on other hand follows the line of entropy as it dances along the arm of a clock and the process of time.. the indication that things get worse as time goes on, not better. However both have this eschatalogical or view of how things will end despite Marxisms apparent secularism. However they show the massive divergence in their view of things.. in this instance Marxism is utopian in looking towards what is required for a brighter future, dystopia offers a tragic warning of how things will become in the current situation, however both utopian and dystopian literature ‘attempt’ to point to something better or an awareness which tries to comment on the current time with a view which is echatalogical in nature.
The reason I’m reading this is because I’m hopefully going to be examining life under Burmese oppression for my dissertation. Burma is the worlds second most heavily censored country in the world and boasts one of the largest armies in Eastern Asia.. and yet has no enemies, the army is at war with the civilian population of the country. The Generals in charge of the military junta are politically unschooled and fear any challenge to their power or more expressly their ideology.. so any divergence or hint of anything going in the direction of a pluralistic or democratic way of life between the components of society is fiercly oppressed. I’ve already been looking at the U.S.S.R and it’s approach to things.. and how that could be compared to Burma’s ‘modus operandi’ but I’m also now examining dystopian literature to see what that has to say on the topic..
But to be honest I’m really fascinated by the whole concept of the tragic and this referral to the Christian worldview. Even the crucifixion of the Christ is an element in the tragic worldview of Christians, it really is at the core of what we believe. Pilate asked “What is truth?” and didn’t bother to stick around, he instead trusted or if anything relented to the justice of Rome and I guess that is compliant with the Soviet’s view as it was with the tower of Babel. The Christian concept of joy is intrinsically linked with that of hope.. I think it was in some movie because I don’t remember hearing this when I read the original myth but in the tale of Pandora, after she opened the box and unleashed evil and suffering on the world at the bottom of the box was hope. It isn’t something immediate and it’s out of our hands but we hope that God will rescue and redeem this existence.
This book then goes on to talk about the divergence of purely tragic literature like Oedipus and King Lear (or much of Shakespeares work) with dystopian literature.. in the tragic.. the individual becomes aware of his place in ‘existence’ and the absurd nature of that existence and yet by his sacrifice or often just his or her awareness we see a divergence from the way of the world… an elusive ‘another world’ just beyond the horizon, in dystopia the main character is often purely a victim. I think this touches on something I read by a guy called G.K Chesterton, he said something like “there are two types of death.. the martyr and the suicide.. one dies to this world.. the other is crushed by the world” (or something like that).
I remember watching an interview with a Journalist and a Burmese dissident, the old guy was on a breathalator or something but wanted to meet the journalist to tell him about what was going on he then said something like “This time when they come to pick me up after you leave I won’t come back, not this time I know that.” and even though he knew that and for all we know was taken away he believed in something, what happened to that guy was tragic no doubt.. but he was witness at the same time to the hope of a deliverance.. admittedly a literal deliverance of Burma.. but I think this struggle is written into us as human beings it’s right there at our core. Deliver us from this absurd existence, this way of the world, this way of ourselves. I think that is starkly different to something like.. I dunno the message given in something like Taxi Driver.. however I think that film says a lot of interesting things about human nature.
I really like this book..
Joe one of my lecturers, and my dissertation tutor actually put the idea out that perhaps we should try using a blog to put our dissertation ideas out there to help us formulate them.. and i guess see what other people comment on if they do too.. so here goes some rambling i’d made earlier..
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Burma according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is the world’s second most heavily censored country next to North Korea. I would like to then analyse or formulate a breakdown of the military junta’s oppression of its civilian population and to examine which groups seem to be expressly targeted by these various methods. I’d do this with primary and secondary research if possible with a mention to how the population has responded in various ways with a focus towards ethnic minorities.
I would then like to compare the findings to the stories of oppressed people around the world (ie; Stalinist Russia) as well referring to fictitious accounts of oppressive regimes in dystopian literature to better understand my own assumptions of life under such regimes and then relate this back to what’s going on in Burma to see how this might inform our understanding of life in this country for these people.
Topics…?
Methodology
- Desired outcome and resources available on the topic
- Qualitative and Quantitative approaches to research
- Phenomenology and the use of sources.
- Ethnography
A recent history of Burma
- 1962 Coup d’etat
- ‘The Burmese Way to Socialism’ The ideology of the military Junta
- Dissent and the history of the pro-democracy movement
- The National League for Democracy
- The last few years/ internet in 2000/cyclone nargis/ 2007 protests/ new constitution vote 2008
Government Behaviour and the country as it is..
- The Military
- Censorship and the Media
- Religion and Ethnicity
- Economy
- Human Rights
Oppression
- A comparative study on the USSR 1937-1949
- A comparative study with Dystopian Literature (Western/Eastern literature.. brave new world, 1984, We, Farenheit 451 etc.)
- Westernised views of authoritarian government
- Burmese Voices on life in Myanmar
- Forms of dissent amongst the Burmese people
It’s not so much to go on.. i guess. What I will say is Athens is flippin’ amazing.. if you haven’t got an Athens account.. then get it, or get onto Googlebooks or something like that because there’s so many resources to be found in a site like that I’ve found..
I’ve got a contact who’s linked with a group called the Free Burma Rangers who I occasionally get through to.. the contact is actually in Thailand but the organisation equips and sends teams who support and work with ethnic minoritys across the country.. so theres the chance of some first hand experience, i don’t want to hedge my bets too much though.. who knows?
Obviously I better get back into the habit or writing in my third person again..
