Edits to Snowballpaper

What is a trope?
A trope is "an element in a story that is commonly reported".[1] An example would be a boy falling in love with a neighbor, the girl next store. Its also an action that someone would do that would be a stereotype.
One example is: "Happily ever after"
There is a girl who is unfortunate, either unfortunate looking or has an unfortunate circumstance (i.e. "the evil step-mother (which is also a trope)), she meets a man (i.e. prince charming (which is also a trope)) but she is too unfortunate to talk to him, then she meets a savior (i.e. the fairy godmother (which is also a trope)) who helps her to win this man over by changing her unfortunate circumstance and they then live happily ever after.
A revelation trope is a trope that involves a revelation. This is an example: A man lives in his normal world, something happens he becomes enlightened, he wants a change, there is a nemesis who doesn't want this change a fight begins, the good guy wins.
Revelation is when you are enlightened, by someone or something else telling you to make a change in your thoughts. Many people have a hard time accepting revelations or investigating them because they are so comfortable with their current situation and ideals. By accepting a revelation they are accepting the fact that something is 'wrong' therefore there needs to be change.

Where we have found them so far, examples from Morrie, matrix etc.
The Revelation trope shows the trope in The Matrix. From Tuesdays with Morrie I would just say a common one that I've noticed is just someone who's not living the way they should be or think they should be and then becomes inspired by someone who is wiser and shows them the light.

Insights
Although it is easy to find them in real life,as a lot of people really live up to their stereotype it is also very rare that everything is wrapped up in a pretty bow as many examples of tropes in entertainment and art make it seem. I just wonder what it is about humans that we enjoy watching something wrapped up when we all know that life isn't like that. I guess it's just that we enjoy stepping out of real life. Sometimes people will live up to their stereotypes therefore making it easier for tropes to be created. Because of tropes, in most cases I feel like say I am watching the same movie over and over again, or reading the same book. Maybe that's why I seem to like books or movies that don't have an "ending".

Expanding on insights:
Although it is easy to find tropes in real life,as a lot of people really live up to their stereotype it is also very rare that everything is wrapped up in a pretty bow as many examples of tropes in entertainment and art make it seem. I just wonder what it is about humans that we enjoy watching something wrapped up when we all know that life isn't like that. I guess it's just that we enjoy stepping out of real life. Sometimes people will live up to their stereotypes therefore making it easier for tropes to be created. Because of tropes, in most cases I feel like say I am watching the same movie over and over again, or reading the same book. Maybe that's why I seem to like books or movies that don't have an "ending", that just makes it feel so much more real. I feel like there is never an ending to your life because someone always feels like there should have been more or they miss you.

I feel that people fight against revelation because it is the easy way
out. Also because some people do not have that much access to reality.
There is too much distracting you with the media and the life that the
capitalists created for you that some people don't understand the
bigger picture. With all the websites, like facebook.com and myspace.com with all the video games like Grand Theft Auto IV, with all the television shows like the real world and with all the things to buy so that you are cool, who has time to think about whats happening in the world and how everything you hear might not be "right".
If I had the chance to offer a revelation message it would be for people to stop caring about dumb shit and wake the fuck up. I don't know how else to put it. It would be that the world is so much bigger then you and there's so much fucked up shit happening that we can just prevent, if we stopped being so greedy and made ourselves not so ignorant to what's happening. Perfect example - Elliot Spitzer... why is it such a big story that he slept with a prostitute? George bush is killing thousands of people a month and here it is, the biggest political scandal of the year,yet again , who our politicians have sex with during their personal time.Is it wrong to pay someone for sex, absolutely. But he is still no George W. The media blinds you with these stories and makes a huge deal about them and we don't hear how this war just keeps going on and how the troops hate their lives and "hate getting paid 85 cents an hour to fight a war." [2]


In class Andy offered us some revelations he has been thinking about and wanted to share with the class. They have been recreated here with the main ideas explained:

Revelation 1: Most men in our society are circumcised and this should be stopped. It is a traumatic experience for the baby and, because that is their first experience with their penis, it should not be a traumatic one because that can cause permanent damage.

I agree with this revelation that circumcision is probably very painful and traumatic experience and I do not understand why someone would want to do that to their son other then the idea of tradition. If that was to happen to an adult it would be one of the most traumatic experiences of their life and it doesn't seem to be any different for a baby except the fact that they do not have the memory of what happened.

Revelation 2: By shaving their bodies women turn their bodies into those of prepubesent childeren. Women should not shave the same places men don't.

I feel two ways about this revelation, making me resist it. I feel as if no one should be looked upon as "disgusting" if they don't shave because that is a personal choice. On the other side, it is my personal choice to shave because I feel more comfortable knowing that my body is shaven, if I did not shave by this point of my life I would feel unclean. This is not because society would call me unclean but because in my personal opinion bodies look cleaner when they are shaven. I feel the same way for a man I do not think anyone looks clean when they are over-ly hairy. I cannot completely agree with this revelation.




Open to Revelations:
How open am I to the idea Revelation? I feel at this point in my life i really want to know as many revelations as possible, then decide if I can accept them or if I resist them. I am open to the idea of having as many things in the world revealed to me as possible I'm just not sure if I'll agree with all of them.




Personal revelations:

"Ignorance is bliss."
This quote has been around me a lot lately in different situations.
So far in my life I feel I have been ignorant about a lot of things. Especially about what really matters in life. Now, I don't think that by any means I have mastered the knowledge of everything that really matters and everything that doesn't, but I have figured out mostly the type of issues that I would like to worry about and try to change, and I have definitely discovered what I do not want to waste my time worrying about. To me the quote ignorance is bliss is a very sarcastic, therefore I agree with it. You could live your life with no knowledge of the important issues that society has, and be happy - everything is fine the way it is, nothing needs to change, besides the fact that I don't have the car and the clothes that I want...etc. Or you might be blessed with some kind of experience to take you out of your little world, letting you know that your issues that you think matter actually do not. What really matters is all the terrible atrocities that happen in the world and how we need to live to change it. I guess that ignorance could only be bliss because if you don't know something, it can't hurt you. That's true, but that is when you have to control your emotions, and not let something hurt you. If you do not even have the opportunity to have knowledge, you will never have the opportunity to decide how to deal with it, what to do with it and hopefully move on from it. If the quote was not being sarcastic, it might go something like, "ignorance is prison."


Feed:
In the book "Feed" by M.T. Anderson, the main character Titus and his friends are all very involved with 'The Feed'. M.T. Anderson has called this novel a metaphor of today's society even though most people think of it as a futuristic novel because of the technology aspects. The Feed is a device implanted in everyones head. They talk through it, buy everything though it, watch TV through it, become intoxicated through it etc. The Feed can even read your mood and tell you what to buy based on how you're feeling. Titus and his friends take a trip to the moon where they meet Violet. While on the moon a Man comes and hits Titus, Violet and a few others with a stick which makes the Feed malfunction. Because the Feed is implanted to their brains, a malfunctioning feed can be very dangerous, if not fatal. In this story Violet is the prophet who we will later learn feels like this about the Feed: “No one with feed thinks about it … When you have the feed all your life, you’re brought up to not think about things. Like them never telling you that it’s a republic and not a democracy. It’s something that makes [her] angry, what people don’t know about these days. Because of the feed, we’re raising a nation of idiots. Ignorant, self-centered idiots” (Page 113). Violet takes Titus with her to reject the feed. By wanting a bunch of material objects and then rejecting them, the Feed can not figure out what she wants and likes and this makes her into an outcast. Because Violet's Feed was implanted at an older age her Feed has no chance in recovering by itself from the hit on the moon. When she goes to get her feed fixed by the "insurance company" They reject her request. “Feedtech and other investors reviewed [her] purchasing history, and [they] don’t feel that [she] would be reliable investment at this time. No one could get what [they] call a ‘handle’ on [her] shopping habits, like for example [she] asking for information about all those wow and brag products and then never buying anything. [They] have to inform [her] that [their] corporate investors were like, ‘what’s doing with this?’ Sorry- [they’re] afraid [she]’ll just have to work with [her] feed the way it is” Violet later dies after delivering her message to Titus.
You can see Feed as a metaphor of today because this is exactly what happens to so many in todays society. From the advertising in our heads all the time, to a prophet being killed, Feed is showing you what your life is whether you choose to accept it or not.


Quotes
"You are a slave." -Julia Kristiva
This is a very important message. Most people do not want to think of themselves as slaves and then they would reject this revelation and this message all together. Even though I do not want to think of myself as a slave I do know that I am a slave to many things as are most people. I know that I am a slave and will be a slave forever to money, as I have to live in this world. I am also a slave to music because I can't live without it. I am also right now unfortunately a slave to many material objects like, clothes and technology etc., even though I am trying to work on that. When told that you are a slave many Americans might think back to the days when African Americans were slaves and they worked for no pay etc. People don't realize that whether you're working for pay or not, you are a slave either way. When you have money, you need money to survive, when you don't have money you need other people to survive making you a slave to something regardless.


"Our civilization is fundamentally based on the ever increasing use of our ever decreasing natural resources."
(Please think about this quote, although I can not talk about it in this paper, it is a very important revelation and it needed to be included)

"When I was a boy" - Dar Williams
Shes talking about how gender doesn't matter and you are who you are. How people always want you to be a certain way because that's how everything "supposed" to be. Just because we're different doesn't mean we're not the same. As said by this quote from the song: "But I was a girl too
And you were just like me, and I was just like you"


Quotes from the Matrix [3] :
"The Matrix is everywhere, all around, even now in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window, feel it when you go to work, it is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth."

"Have you ever just stared at it? Its beauty and its genius? Billions of people just living out their lives. Oblivious."

"Most of these people are not ready to be unplugged- and some of them are so hopelessly dependant on the system that they will fight for it."

The Matrix is an example of a revelation trope. Neo is the deciple, he is living a normal life, day by day, boring job etc. He meets Morpheous who tells him that he is "the one" and he will show him the truth if he takes the red pill or he could take the blue pill and go back to the "sleep state".


conclusion

As you can see, there are thousands, if not millions of revelation messages out there. They're in books, movies, songs even in your daily life. That one thing that you thought was wrong but tried not to think twice about because no one wants to be an outcast. People have all this access to so many messages basically screaming at them to wake up and fight the power, the "norm" and make a change. But most just sit by and do nothing. My theory about why is that their could be a few excuses (sorry, reasons) that people do this. Speaking for myself I can say one of the reasons that I wouldn't even consider myself "awake" is because I wouldn't even know where to start, let alone what to start with to try to change the world. So many things offer this revelation that we need to change and yes I understand that, and I also understand that there are not just one but many problems in the world that need to be addressed, most beginning right here in our personal lives, but they do not deliver the full message which is where do we go from here? How do I make this change? This generation, unlike the major movements that were happening in the 60's and 70's (i.e. Vietnam, civil rights movement, etc.) this generation does not have a leader. Where is our Martin Luther King Jr.? Our Malcolm X? Since people really do lead our lives mostly like a heard of sheep, we need a leader. And while our "profits" and "renegades" keep getting killed and thrown in jail we really won't have one. - Another reason why no one has woken up is because our generation has lost its drive to try to make a change. For example, the other day my math class decided to have a "sit out" where we sat outside of the math room because we did not like our teacher. We were all outside, until the teacher came out about five minutes later...
Something that could happen is that we would have not one, but many people leading so there would be a group effort and not so much focus on one person to be the "prophet."






Citations
1. Snyder, Andy. "Revelation." School of the Future. New York City. 02-05-08.
2. Johnson, Marty Sgt. Fleet Week. New York City. 05-25-08.
3. The Matrix. Dir. The Wachouski Brothers. Perf. Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne. Dvd. Warner Bros., 1999.
4. Anderson. M.T, "Feed", 2002.