The NPC Meme and Song of Solomon

Hey guys!

Occasionally some people get thoughts about everyone around them being pre-programmed robots meant to make their life harder. Most people think this idea is false, but what if I told you it was true? What if I told you that some people may have given up thinking and got others to think for them? It may seem ridiculous, but some users on 4chan have created a meme to reflect this sentiment, in come the NPC meme. 

Now that I've introduced everyone to my good friend NPC Wojak, now we can talk about how this relates to class. In Song Of Solomon, Pilate breaks free from the norm and thinks for herself. This is not to say the bystanders still living their normal lives were in any way "NPCs" with worthless lives, it simply states that Pilate has broken away from the predominant culture. I used to think that our generation, gen Z, is a more rational and reasonable generation, but from the blog topics I heard on monday, I guess not. Most people in our school base their opinions on mainstream media and English excerpts read in class. Few people, even in our class, act like Pilate and deviate from the norm.

Those of you who already know the NPC meme (and aren't big fans) are probably pretty upset that I could say something so rude and offensive about other human beings. People tend to feel offended when one decides to not abide by the groupthink, similar to how many people in Song of Solomon felt offended by Pilate's lack of a naval. When people give up their free thought and let others think for them, they in turn lose their humanity. 

This is not to say that these "NPCs" are worthless and don't deserve to live, it simply mean that people who lack critical thought are annoying to listen to for anyone with critical thought. For example, a person with critical thought could ask "Does the wage gap exist?" to one who leaves their thinking to hack news channels like CNN, and the response would always be the same. Now you may say that people who watch Fox News would have a similar non-thought out response, and I would agree with you. However, the key difference between an NPC and a critical thinker would be found easily after asking the question of "Why does(n't) the wage gap exist?". The NPC likely wouldn't give you an answer (or dance around the question), while the critical thinker would tell you facts and statistics to prove that the wage gap, in fact, does not exist. (hmu if you want those facts)

 

This may seem unrelated to Song of Solomon, but it really isn't. All of Pilates decisions throughout the book are rational and well thought out. Pilate doesn't let others think for her, and instead thinks for herself.

If Pilate can do it, why can't you?

White Women's Terrible Privilege

Ah, the sad story of Emmett Till. A sad, yet necessary event that triggered the civil rights movement. A fourteen-year-old boy minding his own business when a cashier makes up a story that ends up with poor Emmett brutally murdered. You would think that false accusations ruining and ending lives stopped after Emmett Till right? Oh wait, no, it hasn't. 

As we can see, racist and misandrist white women have no problem destroying not only people of colors' lives, but also lives of white men as well. But surely, you say, white men must be as responsible as white women are in these tragedies? Yeah, no. White men are much less racist then white women because white men don't try actively try to call cops on people of color nearly as often as white women do. When in human existence has a white man ever uttered the words, "may I speak to your manager?".

White women have always been held in high esteem as "normal" where as Asian women are seen as "oriental", African American women seen as "ghetto", and Indian American women seen as "exotic". And yet, in common political discourse, it seems that no white feminists like to bring this up. And I'm not saying that white men don't have their fair share of oppressive tendencies, because they do. Black people of color still are below white men, just in different respects to each other. Black women of color are seen as loud and aggressive, and often have to deal with single motherhood and lack of men wanting to date them, whereas black men of color often experience abuse from cops (similar to the abuse experienced by Milkman in Song of Solomon), over-representation in jails, and constant abuse from white women. Take this family for example, 

She probably knows that cops practically hunt African Americans, and doesn't even hesitate to pick up her phone and get the cops over. I found this in five seconds after searching "white women calls cops" on Youtube, and yet searching "white man calls police" on Youtube nothing comes up. Huh, funny how that works, doesn't it. And we're being told that white men are the oppressors? 

Oh wow, another example. This is ridiculous. Now you might be saying, "buh white waman don't oppress hwite mens! hwite mens oppress the poor hwite wamans!". Oh, you poor child. Despite the FACTS that the wage gap is practically non-existent for white women, we still are bombarded with lies from the white female media elites every day. Most idiotic Republicans celebrated Kavanaughs situation as a "victory for the right" and fail to understand the deep significance of Judge Ford's actions. A white women was abusing her privileged to destroy a mans life, and rile up her white feminist sheeples to attack him. As one African American Youtuber, Solomon Jones puts it, "us men truly have no rights in this country". If a white women is in a car with a black man of color and yells rape, there is a 100% chance he will be killed. Think about that. And white women, recognize your privileged and do something about it.

How I See Rhetorical Analysis in Shrek and Music

Sometimes everyone needs a reminder on literary analysis. People sometimes misunderstand the purpose and importance of rhetorical strategies, and sometimes lose the main point of them and how they build to a central idea.



Shrek states that he is like an onion, a quagmire of complexity in the world famous movie with the same name. Often this is akin to how most understand rhetorical analysis, by peeling off the outer layers to achieve a deeper meaning. Only difference is, the theme or center of the onion is usually much clearer than the strategies used to bring one to that same conclusion. However, that is not to state in any way that the outer layers do not contain less importance, on the contrary, the outerlayers are usually subconsiously picking up on these tricks, leading one to the main idea of a text.

Of course through reading this, some may think that I utilized the example of Shrek as some kind of juvenile joke or "meme", but I can assure you it is not. In fact, a common examples of small techniques used to constuct a deeper meaning are seen all throughout artwork, including but not limited to music, painting, sculpture, and even architecture (as seen in our study on war memorials). A common example I think about with this idea is music. For example, please listen to this song;

To an untrained ear, this beautiful masterpeice may sound like a cancophany of sound, and even a trained ear may still not pick up on the techniques in this piece. And yet, no matter who you ask, everyone still understands the overall theme, even without knowing the individual pieces. It doesn't take someone like Mozart to realize this music is used to convey an overall feeling of dispear, anger, suspense, and power. It doesnt take a genius to realize this is a bossfight theme.

The theme first starts off with strings and church bells, meant to build up your ear for what is to come. The drums and the tubular bells come in, building up more layers, more speed, and best of all, more suspense. You tense for what you expect to hear... but then it never comes. You wait for it to get even better, but then the beat slows again leaving you with a melody previously heard. And then it's given to you, the fight begins. The crazy arppegio excites you as you wait for more, but the song simply loops back around. Dissapointed? Well, that was the point. The whole time during the boss fight you start to think this boss is too easy. The boss is defeated in minutes and you are left wondering why the hell did it take so long for you to prepare for such an easy fight.

And then it hits you.

The beautiful harp reminds you that, no, infact, the song is not over just yet! You feel the drop as chills run down your arms. The battle continues, and its even harder than before!

I could talk about music for a millenia, but I have better things to explain. So many tricks were using in just these two basic songs, its hard to even count them all. Repeated melodies, instrument choice, and drum patterns are some of the first things that come to most people's minds, but throught detailed analysis these simple songs are much, much more.

Maybe that applies to literature too, hell if I know.

-Johnny